Relic of the Past
by OkayDokey33
Summary: Poor Bolt is having a hard time dealing with his loneliness, so it might be a good thing that an important(?) figure from Naruto's past magically inserts herself into the Uzumakis lives, right? Well, maybe. First she has to figure out why and how she is even there in the first place. Luckily for her, Naruto's friends are more than willing to help her figure that mystery out.
1. A Wish

"Well, I'm off," Naruto said, looking deeply into his wife's eyes as he said it.

Hinata smiled and gave her husband a nod of her head. "We'll be waiting for you," she said.

Naurto nodded. "Yeah." The two of them embraced each other, holding onto one another as long as they possibly could get away with without the possibility of giving any of their onlookers an ample and noticeable reason to poke fun at them later on. When they finally let each other go, Naruto knelt down to give his two children their very own proper farewells. "You two be good, okay?"

His daughter gave her father an enthusiastic salute and nod of her head. "Okay," she said, a wide and cheerful grin practically covering her face, "you can count on me!" She then lowered her salute and, with her eyes shining with excitement, added, "But in return, you have to promise me that you'll get me a souvenir from Uncle Gaara's place, okay?"

Naruto grinned before reaching into Himawari's hair and ruffling it up playfully. "You've got yourself a deal!" He then took his hand out of his daughter's hair and asked, "Anything specific you want?"

Himawari thought about it for a moment, placing one of her index fingers onto her chin as she thought, before shaking her head angrily and answering, "I can't think of anything!"

Naruto chuckled. "Fine, then I'll just have to bring the whole village with me when I come back, then you can personally choose whatever souvenir you want!"

Temari frowned disapprovingly. "Geez, don't spoil the kid."

Shikamaru nodded his head in agreement with his wife's statement. "She's got a point Naruto. You make promises like this and you'll start focusing on getting souvenirs more than on actual politics."

Naruto frowned. "Aw, come on! It's all in good fun!" He then turned his attention back to Himawari, smiled, and asked, "Right Himawari?"

Himawari nodded her head exuberantly. "Right!"

Temari let out an exasperated sigh. One would think that moving to the Village Hidden in the Leaves would make her more accustomed to the seventh Hokage's behavior, but she was disappointed to find out that it only made her more annoyed by it. Sure, he had her respect, and with how much he had changed her family for the better, he had her thanks as well, but that didn't make up for the fact that, sometimes, Naruto just seemed to be a child stuck in an adult's body. She honestly didn't know how Hinata and Shikamaru did it, dealing with a guy like this for their entire lives, Hinata especially, since she was flat-out married to said guy.

Temari looked down at her son, Shikadai, who had been silently watching the entire scene unfold right in front of him with his arms crossed, obviously annoyed and already tired of the whole thing. She placed a hand on top of her son's head and pushed it down a little before shaking Shikadai's head around a bit, earning her an annoyed and perturbed look from him. His mother smirked. "What's with the look kiddo? Too cool to say goodbye to your old man?"

Shikadai let out an annoyed huff. "No. If anything, dad's too cool to be saying goodbye."

Temari eyes widened in surprise. To hear her son say such a thing was rare. Shikamaru, however, wasn't all too convinced with his son's possible flattery. After all, he seemed to take more after him than his mother, and Shikamaru knew that there was no way something like that would ever leave his mouth, especially at that age. He crossed his arms and skeptically asked, "And just what exactly do you mean by that?"

Shikadai gave his father an annoyed pout. He hated getting into long conversations. His father knows that, so why does he always insist on making him do such things? If what his father always says about him being just like him back when he was Shikadai's age, then shouldn't his father be more understanding? "You're the Hokage's advisor and personal guard dad. And you're traveling with the Hokage himself! Not to mention the fact that you guys are going to meet up with Uncle Gaara and Uncle Kankuro, another Hokage and personal guard. So what's the point of saying goodbye? It's not like anything out there's going to kill you."

"That doesn't matter," Temari firmly scolded. "Now say goodbye to your father!"

After glancing at his mother and realizing that she wasn't messing around, there would surely be serious consequences if he didn't comply, he inwardly groaned. He turned back to his dad and simply said, "See ya."

Temari let out an exasperated sigh. "Honestly, what am I going to do with you," she muttered to herself as she rubbed her temples out of annoyance.

Shikamaru sighed. "Well, I guess I have to make do with that." Dragging this out any longer would put him and the Hokage further behind schedule than they already were, so he decided to just let this particular battle go, at least for now. He turned his attention back towards the Hokage and asked, "Have you finished saying your goodbyes yet Naruto? We really need to get going now."

Naruto turned to Shikamaru and lifted up his index finger. "Just a sec, okay Shikamaru?"

After taking a moment to fully consider Naruto's request, Shikamaru sighed, again realizing full well that this was no time to argue, especially against somebody like Naruto, and complied. "Alright, but just make it quick, alright. We're already running late as it is."

Naruto nodded understandingly. He then turned to Bolt, who was looking particularly crestfallen. "So," Naruto asked, "anything specific that you want for your souvenir?" When Bolt didn't give an immediate answer, Naruto's lips shifted into a concerned frown. "Bolt?"

Bolt averted his eyes to the side, away from his expectant father's gaze. "I guess a toy would be nice," he finally answered sullenly.

Easily detecting his son's gloominess, Naruto put on a small and reassuring smile as he placed a hand on one of Bolt's shoulders and gave it a firm and reassuring squeeze. "Got it! And maybe when we get back we can play with it together." He grinned. "What do you say?"

Bolt seriously doubted it, but he knew better than to say what was on his mind. He would have to save face and endure through his pain… again. He returned his father's grin with a grin of his own. "Sure!" he said.

Naruto grinned once more before placing his hand through his son's hair and ruffling it up a bit. "That's my boy!" he said proudly. He then got up and gave Shikamaru a quick nod, signaling to him that they was done here and Shikamaru returned the Hokage's nod with an obedient nod of his own. Naruto turned once more towards his family. "Well, we're off." He and Shikamaru then began their sprint towards the Village Hidden in the Sand.

"Have a safe trip!" Hinata cried out, cupping her mouth with one hand and giving one last wave goodbye to his husband and her friend with the other.

Shikadai thrust his hands into his pockets, hunched forward a bit, and released an annoyed sigh. "Honestly, why don't they just use the Body Flicker Technique?" he asked.

Temari cast her son a disapproving look. "Because if they kept doing that, the village would be a complete laughing stock for having two out-of-shape ninjas leading it."

"Who cares?" Shikadai scoffed. "That doesn't stop them from being two of the most powerful ninjas in the village."

"Yeah?" Temari asked, earning her a surprised and annoyed grunt from her son as she placed a hand on top of Shikadai's head and roughly pushed it down to further convey her displeasure at what her son was uttering. "Well just because you've got a little bit of a point there, that doesn't excuse the fact that you're acting like a little brat right now, and I'm not going to allow any brats to live under my roof, got that?"

Shikadai grumbled to himself for a bit before finally nodding his head and answering, "Yeah, yeah, I got it."

Temari's eyes narrowed exasperatedly as a result of her son's impudent behavior. "Is that any way to speak to your mother?" she asked.

Shikadai lamely pouted as he mumbled, "Grandma says that dad and I 'fell from the same tree'."

"Mama?" Himawari asked as she lightly tugged against her mother's pants to further alert her mother that she had a question. "What type of tree is Shikadai talking about?"

Hinata chuckled lightly to herself as she happily smiled down at her daughter and gently shook her head at the innocent misconception her daughter was asking her about. "It's just an expression dear," she said. "It means that Shikadai's grandmother thinks that Shikadai acts very much like how Shikamaru used to act when Shikamaru was Shikadai's age."

"Oh," Himawari said as she smiled and nodded slowly, signaling that she understood. She then thought for a moment before her face lit up and she excitedly asked, "Do you and I fall from the same tree too mama? Huh? Do we? Do we?!"

Hinata blushed slightly as she tried to find the best way to answer that particular question. "W-Well, you see…."

Temari smirked at her fellow mother's current predicament before folding her arms coolly and saying, "I don't know Himawari. You'd have to look up to your father a lot more before anyone can claim that you two, 'fell from the same tree'."

Hinata let out a yelp of surprise as she blushed even harder. "T-Temari!" she cried.

Temari snickered at Hinata's expense. "I kid, I kid!"

Himawari frowned, turned to Shikadai, and asked, "Hey, Shikadai, what's your mother kidding about?"

Shikadai let out an exasperated sigh as he placed both of his hands behind his head. "How should I know? Man, what a drag."

Despite all of the commotion the four were making, Bolt remained ominously silent, not just for that instance, but for most of the rest of the day; and as Bolt sullenly got himself ready for bed, the words of his father continued to echo in the farthest reaches of his mind. "So," Naruto had asked, "anything specific that you want for your souvenir?" Anything specific that Bolt wanted for a souvenir? Was he joking? Did he simply forget? Did he truly think that his very own son could be so shallow?

Nowadays, Bolt cared little for material possessions, even ones that were from an entirely different village. It was his father's time and attention that he longed for, but he knew he couldn't say that. He and his father had already been over this. As Hokage, Naruto was now the entire Leaf Village's father, and thus had to take care of every citizen, biological relation or not. This meant that he had to take time away from spending time with his actual family so that he could better make everyone's lives within the village easier. Bolt knew this, and after a long time grew to understand it, but deep down, that didn't change a single thing. He still longed to be with his father, he still somewhat hated his role as Hokage, and he still didn't much care for how much trouble he would inevitably get into with all of those elaborate pranks he did on the daily. His father, after reprimanding him for one of his pranks, had consoled him by telling him that, as a ninja, he would naturally have to endure through his pain, but that didn't help much either. If anything, it only made him bitterer about his situation. It was so hard, enduring through your own pain by yourself.

According to his mother, his father had had to endure much pain throughout his entire life, but in all honesty, how did that justify making his children go through the exact same thing? Sure, Himawari wasn't feeling the effects now, but sooner or later, she'd notice how messed up it all was, having a father but never being allowed to spend any time with him. That'd be good, because honestly, Bolt was tired with being completely alone on this. As much as he loved her, his mother, being the kind, patient, and understanding woman that she was, he felt, was simply that, too kind, patient, and understanding of the situation. She wasn't the type of person to call out her own husband on how little time he was spending with their children, and whenever he'd complain about it, she'd just try to gently help her son understand her father's situation. Then there were the kids at school, who honestly couldn't see what he was complaining about. His father was the Hokage, the strongest ninja in the village! Why should he complain about not being able to spend time with his father? At least his father was cool. And then there were the other adults in his life who simply said the same things his mother and father said to him. Bolt seemed to be the only person who felt this way about his situation, and he absolutely hated it. How could a boy constantly be surrounded by so many people and yet still feel so alone?

Bolt could only heave out a weary and exasperated sigh as he lay in his bed, having already wished a good night to his mother and little sister before turning off all of the lights in his room, covered the entire lower half of his body with his blanket, and drew the curtains to his only window aside so that he could at least somewhat enjoy whatever view he could get from his bedroom window. It was honestly a pretty good view, one he knew that a lot of his classmates would beg to have, but even this seemed increasingly insignificant compared to what Bolt ultimately wanted out of life. After all, what was the point of having the world if you had no one to share it with? And the one person Bolt truly wanted to share it with was his father. Sure, being the son of the Hokage had its perks, Bolt had to admit that, but it seemed like for every luxury the life of a Hokage seemed to have, another, older luxury had to be taken away, and Bolt didn't like that. Why couldn't his dad be the greatest ninja in the entire village and also be the greatest dad around? Deep down, Bolt realized how selfish and unrealistic he was being, but at the same time, he didn't really care. Why couldn't he have both? His father had his Shadow Clone Technique. Why couldn't he just leave a clone at the office so that he could spend some time with his kids? As weird as he thought Uncle Kakashi could be at times, even Kakashi seemed to be smart enough to know to become Hokage before he had any family to neglect.

In all honesty, the more he thought about his situation, the more it seemed to make Bolt angry, and at times, he wanted to be angry, he wanted to show everyone just how truly angry and upset he was about the fact that he had practically lost his father and how no one ever really seemed to care. He wanted to explode and lash out at his old man and make him realize just how messed up this all was… but he couldn't. Or rather, he wouldn't, because one of the few things Bolt wanted more than his father's attention was his father's approval, and he knew that there was no way he was going to get it if he went on a temper tantrum. And besides, was it really worth the risk of losing his mother's approval in the process? Nuh-uh. No way. Bolt let out another frustrated sigh as he stared off straight ahead at nothing in particular. There was nothing Bolt could do about this, nothing at all except endure. After all, ninjas are those who endure, aren't they? He'd just have to suck it up and endure through his pain and loneliness, just like his dad did back when he was a kid.

And yet, he didn't want to. He wanted there to be someone who he could express his unadulterated feelings to. He wanted someone there who he could vent to and they would understand. He wanted someone who was willing to listen and be content with listening, because dang it, he knew that there was no real solution to his problem, and he honestly didn't want to run the risk of making it worse than it already was. What he wanted nowadays (besides his father's attention, obviously) was a true friend… a confidant, someone who would accept his dark side, but would still willingly hang out with him if presented the chance. But even that seemed hopeless. The only way to find out if you had a friend like that would literally be to risk scaring them off by showing them your dark side in the first place, and chances were that if Bolt started showing other people his dark side, he'd probably be more alone than he ever was before.

"It looks like I'm just going to have to keep enduring then," Bolt thought to himself as he slowly rolled over to his side, looking out of his window and truly looking out of it for the first time in a long time, without any provocation from anyone else. He looked up towards the night sky, bearing witness to the multitude of stars scattered across it. "But… it'd sure be nice… having somebody else," he yawned, his eyes noticeably starting to get heavier and heavier with each passing second, "to help me through it and all."

The son of Naruto then fell asleep, oblivious to the fact that a shooting star had just fallen from the sky.

* * *

Hinata awoke to the sound of chirping birds, the rays of sunlight hitting her eyes only inciting her further to open them and start her day. She groggily opened her eyes and, once finding that her eyesight was a bit blurry, rubbed her eyes a bit and waited for the problem to naturally fix itself. Much to her surprise, she felt the bed move a bit beside her, and, after recovering a bit from her initial shock, turned her head to the side to see who could possibly be responsible for such a thing. Despite her still blurry vision, she couldn't help but smile at what she saw: familiar-looking whisker marks and equally familiar-looking blond hair. Knowing that Bolt was old enough to take care of himself, all of the possible entryways into their house were locked, and nothing had noticeably disturbed her the entire night, it only made sense to assume that either Naruto had come back from his meeting early (being that Naruto had his very own key to his very own house and that Naruto, being a Hokage-level ninja, could believably be skilled enough to have found a way to slip into bed without having disturbed her in the slightest), or that she was seeing things and that she'd realize any moment now that she was actually alone (which was certainly possible, since she loved her husband dearly, and after having woken up to see him at the opposite side of the bed for so long, it would only be natural that she'd imagine it even if he wasn't actually there at the moment).

Despite the two perfectly reasonable explanations for what Hinata was currently seeing, as Hinata's vision slowly readjusted itself to what it normally was, Hinata's eyes couldn't help but widen in absolute shock and surprise at what she saw. The person who was sleeping on the other side of her bed was definitely someone whom she recognized… but it was someone whom she had never seen in quite some time. That is, if you even considered the person sleeping across from her a legitimate person or not. Hinata let out a scream of surprise, quickly got herself out of bed, and quickly backed away until she inevitably backed herself into a wall, accidentally causing the very person she wanted to keep from disturbing to slowly start to wake up.

The woman with the easily recognizable whisker-like marks on her cheeks and the equally easily recognizable golden locks of hair running freely down her head stretched herself out and yawned in a manner similar to that of a feline who had just awoken from a satisfying nap, and as she was doing this, Hinata's eyes widened in horror as she slowly realized that the person with whom she had just shared her bed with was apparently completely naked, causing the face of the wife of the seventh Hokage to practically turn as red as her mother-in-law's hair had been.

As the woman innocently began to rub the sleep out of her eyes, Hinata proceeded to frantically rub her eyes, slap her cheeks, and pinch herself, practically doing whatever she could think of to wake up from this frankly strange and worrying dream. When none of it seemed to work, Hinata decided to try and release herself from whatever illusion she was apparently trapped in in a last ditch effort to prove that what was happening was in no way actually happening. When that didn't seem to work, only one other explanation seemed to make sense and come to mind.

At this point, the woman, who quite frankly seemed just as confused as Hinata was, had begun to look around the room and survey her surroundings, wondering just how she got there and what exactly was going on. When Hinata and the woman's eyes met, that's where they stayed. The two simply stared at each other, Hinata wondering just what type of cruel and unusual prank her husband was trying to pull on her, and the woman wondering just who this other woman was. Despite having admittedly seen very few women in her life, what few women she HAD seen were obviously completely different people compared to this one, because… well… in all honesty, she wasn't really sure. Her memories were still all a bit fuzzy at the moment, though she did seem to remember enough to know that Hinata was unlike anyone she had ever seen before, especially that man whose name started with the letter "J". What was his name again? J… J… Jir… Jir-something. It was at the tip of her tongue! The woman began to rub her temple with the palm of one of her hands in an attempt to try and clearly remember something, anything, but to no current avail.

Hinata took a cautious step forward towards the confused woman, her hands raised up in an attempt to calm her down and reassure her that she meant her no harm, but to also protect herself in case the woman made any sudden and unpredictable movement. "Naruto?" she asked carefully. "What… what exactly are you doing?"

The woman seemed to react to this. "Naruto?" the woman repeated softly. She then thought for a moment. "Naruto," she murmured to herself. Yes, of course, Naruto. Despite the fact that she was sure that she had never physical met anyone bearing that name before, she recognized that name in a heartbeat, and likewise, a clear image of the only Naruto whom she had ever known (for whatever reason that wasn't clear to her just yet) appeared in her head, despite how most would've probably reacted to seeing an image in their head of a person they were fully convinced that they had never seen or met before, upon remembering this half-stranger, the woman could only feel a sense of heartwarming nostalgia.

It was a strange feeling to say the least.

The woman slowly surveyed her surroundings once more before softly asking, "Where is he?"

Hinata's eyes widened in surprise. "What?" she murmured to herself. If this was just another one of her husband's pranks, he was certainly taking it a bit far now, wasn't he?

Before Hinata could ask any more questions however, a knock came from the door. "Mom?" she heard her son call out from the other side. "Are you alright in there?"

Hinata's eyes widened in a sudden state of panic. "Bolt?!" she inwardly cried. She looked back frantically towards the still slightly confused, naked woman sitting in the middle of her bed and inwardly screamed. "Oh no! I can't let Bolt and Himawari see this! I just can't!"

"Um… yes!" Hinata cried, trying to sound as reassuringly convincing as possible despite how frantically her mind was racing. "Why do you ask?" She then quickly made her way towards the woman sitting in the middle of the bed, who fearfully and instinctively leaned and crawled back a bit upon seeing the other woman in the room quickly coming closer to her. Hinata attempted to grab either the shoulder or the arm of the strange woman, but when it had become perfectly clear that the woman wasn't exactly going to let her, she leaned forward, inching very closely towards the woman's frightened face, and whispered, "Hide, quickly!"

The woman blinked in confusion. "Hide?" she softly repeated. Hide… she was aware of the term, but she had never really put it into practice before. She honestly didn't know how she was going to fulfill that particular request.

Hinata nodded. "Yes, hide! Quickly!"

The woman stared in front of her for a moment before slowly shaking her head and murmuring, "I… I'm not sure if I can. I've… I've never actually done that before."

Hinata's eyes widened in surprise upon hearing such a strange response. "What?!"

At the other side of the door, Hinata's son was eyeing the door to his mother's bedroom suspiciously. It was only once his little sister had begun to leave that he was finally compelled to speak in some manner. "Where are you going?" he asked.

Himawari turned around and answered, "Mama said that she was fine, so I'm going to go back to my room and play."

Bolt frowned disapprovingly at his little sister's naivety. "She's lying to us Himawari! It's obvious that she's NOT fine!" He stubbornly began pounding on the door. "Mom! Are you alright?! What's going on in there?!"

Hinata whipped her head back towards her bedroom door and backed a good distance away from the woman in her sudden and ever rising panic. "N-Nothing!" she cried, though even she had to admit that she didn't sound the least bit convincing. "J-Just," her mind raced furiously as she tried to come up with a credible excuse to give to her incredulous children, "doing some morning stretches!" She instinctively began to do some stretches in an attempt to make her lie seem somewhat more convincing. "One two three four, one two three four, one two three four, one two three four!" Knowing that she was counting all too suspiciously, quickly, and loudly for even the most innocent of children to believe her charade, Hinata quickly turned to the woman sitting in her bed and urgently whispered, "Can you please at least cover yourself?"

The woman took a moment to let the request sink in. "Cover myself," she murmured to herself. When she slowly realized that she did, in fact, possess some experience in that particular field, her eyes shined brightly, her face lit up joyfully, and she nodded her head excitedly. "I can do that!" she said, as quietly as she could, minding the fact that the Hinata obviously wanted to keep the interaction between them as private as possible. She then proceeded to cover the sensitive parts of her chest with her arm and the place between her legs with one of her hands, smiling all too innocently and a bit too proudly at Hinata once she did.

Hinata stopped her loud chanting and stretching in order to give the woman a shocked and horrified gawk. She frantically shook her head as she just as frantically waved her hands from side to side in an attempt to convey to the woman that she had misunderstood her and had performed the task wrong. "No, no, not like that!" she whispered urgently to the stranger resting on her bed. She quickly made her way towards the woman and said, "When I said to cover yourself, I meant that you needed to put some clothes on!"

The woman's face fell a bit as she took a moment to ponder over what she had just heard. "Put some clothes on?" she murmured to herself. Her eyes then widened in terror and dismay. She looked up at Hinata and shook her head. "I've…," she swallowed a nervous and dread-filled lump in her throat as she slowly continued to shake her head, "I've never actually done that before either!"

Hinata's eyes widened in a mixture of surprise and horror. "W-What?!" she exclaimed quietly.

Another urgent knock on the door. "Mom!" Bolt cried from the other side as he continued knocking. "We know you're faking it!"

"But she's counting!" Hinata and the woman heard Himawari say.

"Just because she's counting doesn't automatically mean that she's actually stretching!" Bolt argued exasperatedly.

Hinata looked around the room frantically for a solution to her current and undesirable predicament. When her eyes finally brought her attention to a passable solution, she excitedly pointed at it and said, "Quick, let's wrap your body with this blanket!" She then quickly approached the woman with the intention of assisting her, which caused said woman to yelp out in fear and surprise, instinctively recoil back and protect herself with her arms. Hinata raised an eyebrow at the woman's strange behavior. "I-I'm sorry, is there something wrong?" she asked as gently as she possibly could.

As the woman slowly lowered her defenses, Hinata could see the light and embarrassed blush spreading across her face. "I-I'm sorry," the woman answered quietly and shamefully, "but… I just don't like the idea of being touched."

Hinata let out a small gasp of surprise. "W-Why is that?" she asked.

The woman gently placed her hands down on the bed, looked away bashfully, and sheepishly drew circles on the bed with one of her index fingers. "I'm… I'm not really sure," she answered quietly.

Hinata gave the woman a small, pitiful smile before letting out a weary sigh and giving the woman the kindest smile she could muster (considering the circumstances). "Okay then," she said. This earned her a surprised gasp and look from the other woman. Hinata smiled tenderly. "Raise your hands up," she gently instructed. The woman followed her direction, but when Hinata saw that she had a questionable look on her face, Hinata quickly added, "If you're nervous about someone touching you, then I'll just have to be careful not to touch you then." She grabbed the edges of her blanket as the woman watched her in awe, her hands still obediently raised above her head. "Now, just hold still and I'll have this wrapped around your body in no time."

After barely wrapping the blanket a couple of times around the woman's chest (and without even properly securing it), the door to Hinata's bedroom suddenly flew open, letting a concerned Bolt and curious Himawari barge in and causing the two women to suddenly jolt away from each other, both of them bringing their hands close to their chests, Hinata because she wanted to keep her children from knowing that she had to literally dress an amnesiac, full-grown, adult woman, and the woman due to the fact that Hinata had requested that she properly cover herself and, with the blanket not yet properly secure around her body, pressed her hands against the edges of the blanket in order to better help the soft fabric stay there.

"Mom!" Bolt cried as he ran into the room, too prepared to confront his mother and get the answers he sought to pay any real attention to the other obvious person in the room, little Himawari following not too far behind. "What's going on in here?! All of a sudden you just stopped talking and -" Bolt then felt his little sister suddenly tug the edge of his shirt. He gave his little sister an annoyed glance. "What is it Himawari?"

"Big brother, look!" Himawari cried, her eyes widening and brightening in excitement as she stared and held her breath in awe at the woman sitting in her mother's bed and looking at the two of them curiously. She pointed towards said woman and proclaimed, "She's so pretty!"

Bolt raised an eyebrow curiously at his little sister before following Himawari's finger and looking at whatever his sister had requested for him to look at, only to let out an appalled gasp and blush heavily at the sight of a naked woman sitting in his parents' bed and wearing only a blanket to cover herself. "W-What the heck is going on here?!" Bolt internally screamed, unable to take his eyes away from what appalled him so.

As Hinata's cheeks produced yet another uncomfortable blush at her current situation, the woman continued to stare at the two children who had just barged into the room unannounced, or, more specifically, the one who was currently gawking at her in shock right now. "No," she internally whispered to herself, "that can't be. That's impossible." In an action that would later even admittedly surprise herself, let alone everyone else in the room, she quickly and hastily crawled off of the bed, fell to the ground, and continue crawling across the room until her face was literally centimeters away from Bolt's face, resulting in Bolt leaning back as far as he possibly could to avoid colliding heads with the strange woman and both Himawari and Hinata letting out a gasp of surprise, Hinata's gasp being a bit more fearful due to not knowing what was about to transpire and ultimately fearing and preparing for the worst.

To both of Bolt and Hinata's surprise, nothing bad or particularly strange ever happened, or, at least, not to the extent that they were dreading. Instead, the woman seemed to be carefully and curiously inspecting every aspect of Bolt's face, before looking thoughtfully into Bolt's eyes and whispering, "Naruto?"

* * *

Author's Note #1: With all of the other long term stories I have under my belt, I must be insane for adding another long term story under it. Ah well, what can you do, right? Hopefully this is interesting enough to pique many a readers' interests. I know it piqued mine. After all, the last time I submitted something under the Naruto section, Naruto was still going on, so once it ended, I just had to write this one, you know? So, what do you guys think of the concept and the story so far? Is it interesting? Maybe you can give me some feedback on what you think of this story so far, yeah? This idea is pretty different, so I think it'll be interesting to see what you guys will have to say about it.

Author's Note #2: For any of those who recognize me as the author of my other Naruto story, "I'm Not Your Mother", don't worry, I'm still working on that. I plan on finishing the next chapter soon. Sorry for making you wait so long. Let that also be a warning for those who like his story, my updates are pretty few and far between, so get ready to be patient, yeah?


	2. A Name

Bolt let out a small gasp upon hearing his father's name being uttered by the strange and scantily clad woman who had practically made a mad dash towards him and was now unabashedly invading his personal space, their faces mere centimeters away from each other, with him being able to hear and feel ever breath that left her mouth. "Wait, what did you just say?" he asked.

The woman blinked a bit, as if Bolt's words had awoken her from some strange and magical trance, before giving Bolt a funny look and saying, "Hm?"

Bolt quickly backed away from the strange, blonde-haired stranger before pointing an annoyed and accusing finger at her and repeating, "What did you just say right now? You… you called me by my old man's name just now!" When the woman gave him a strange look, Bolt's patience immediately grew thin, his fists clenching in frustration over how overly complicated this woman was making a simple task such as answering a question be. "Who are you?" he questioned. "And why do you look so much like him? What's your affiliation with my father?"

The woman's eyes widened a bit as she let out a small gasp of surprise. "Your father? Naruto…," she lightly pointed at Bolt, "is your father?"

"Yep!" a cheerful and youthful female voice said from behind her. Naruko looked behind her to find a girl who bore a striking resemblance to the woman with whom she had woken up with. The little girl, holding a stuffed rabbit in her arms, ran up to the woman with a cheerful smile on her face and said, "Big brother's papa is my papa too!"

The woman's eyes widened upon hearing the smiling little girl's words. "'Papa'?"

Himawari jovially nodded. "Yep! My name is Himawari!" She then pointed towards her brother, who was gawking at his little sister, shocked that she was already sharing private information with a woman that neither of them had ever met until today. "And my big brother's name is Boruto, but a lot of us just call him Bolt!" She bowed. "It's really nice to meet you!"

After a brief moment of hesitation, the woman slowly, and somewhat awkwardly, returned the gesture, much to Himawari's joy. "It's… it's really nice to meet you too."

Himawari face lit up so much that one could practically light an entire room with her face alone. "You're really pretty, you know that right?"

The woman thought about it for a moment, trying to recall if she had indeed ever been given such a compliment before. At the moment, she could vaguely remember hearing someone call her such things such as "lovely" and "beautiful", and since they practically meant the same thing as "pretty" she decided that that was enough to properly answer the young girl's question. She nodded her head slowly. "Yes, I think so."

"Hey, Himawari!" Bolt cried as he quickly made his way to his little sister's side, grabbed her shoulders, and forced her to take a few steps back while keeping his eyes on the strange woman the entire time. "What do you think you're doing?!" he hissed.

Himawari looked up to her brother innocently. "I'm making friends with someone!" she answered in such a way that made it perfectly clear that she thought that the answer was perfectly obvious.

Bolt frowned disapprovingly at her. "Himawari, we barely know anything about her! And look at her," he nodded towards the woman, "look at how suspicious she looks!"

Himwari looked towards the woman and looked at her face. While Himawari trusted her big brother's judgment on almost anything, she honestly couldn't see what was so suspicious about her. She looked like the least threatening person in the world right now. She turned back to her big brother. "I don't see it," she said.

"What do you mean you don't see it?!" Bolt cried, both out of frustration and anger. Realizing that he wasn't going to get anywhere with her, he turned to his mother and asked, "Mom, what's going on here?! Who is she? And what is she doing in your room dressed like that?"

"Ah," Hinata began, her mind racing as she was quickly trying to come up with a credible cover story to tell her kids, "w-well… she is, um," her eyes darted to the side for a bit in the hopes of getting some last-minute inspiration, which was exactly what she got once she saw one of the family's many family pictures sitting in a picture frame besides her bed, "your aunt."

"Wow, really?" Himawari asked. "Like Aunt Hanabi?"

Hinata nodded. "Yes, but from your father's side."

"Wow," Himawari said. She turned to the woman who was still watching them from her place on the floor. "I didn't know papa had a sister!"

"That's because he doesn't Himawari!" Bolt thought. "Can't you see that mom's just making all this up? But that does raise the question," Bolt eyed his mom suspiciously, "of just why mom is covering for this lady in the first place. What the heck is going on here?"

"So, what's your name?" Himawari asked.

"My… name?" The woman adorably placed her index finger onto her cheek as her eyes looked up as she thought about it. In terms of names, all she could really remember was angry female voices yelling "Naruto" at her before everything went black. Strange, was Naruto her name? Was that the reason why she had a strange, nostalgic, and familiar feeling whenever she thought about it? No, that couldn't be it. She knew who Naruto was, but was it possible that the two of them shared the same name? Perhaps, it certainly wasn't unheard of. "Well… I guess my name is Narut-"

Hinata internally screamed in panic before quickly crying out, "Naru…," she desperately thought of any other possible name that would fit and make sense, "ko! Naruko! She's your aunt Naruko Uzumaki!"

Bolt gave his mother a funny and incredulous look. "Naruko?" he thought. "So dad's named after fishcakes and his supposed 'sister' is named after… wooden festival clappers?"

"Wow, what a pretty name!" Himawari cried. She began running up to "Naruko", which caused her to anxiously and frantically crawl backwards until she inevitably backed herself into a wall (the blanket hanging on for dear life around her body as she did), much to everyone's surprise, causing her to let out a surprised yelp of pain as she crashed into it. Himawari's face fell as she stopped approaching her aunt and asked, "Auntie Naruko, what's wrong?"

Naruko looked at Himawari's sad face and felt a pang of regret for reacting the way she did. Why did she act this way every time someone approached her? Surely there must've been a reason for it. Whatever the reason was, it seemed to have caused her to develop a kneejerk reaction whenever someone seemed to be approaching her or attempting to touch her. Not that that really mattered in this case. Despite admittedly not remembering spending much time with children herself, this little girl, Himawari, was absolutely adorable, and all she had ever wanted to do was to interact with her. Himawari didn't deserve to feel whatever… what was the emotion Himawari was expressing right now? It was sadness, right? Naruko couldn't remember ever seeing someone being even remotely sad before, but even she knew that someone like Himawari didn't deserve to feel sad over her own foolish behavior. Once Naruko had calmed herself down a bit, she answered, "N-Nothing, it's just… just…." Curses, she couldn't think of a good enough reason to justify what she had just done.

Luckily for her, Hinata understood exactly what she was trying to do and said, "Your aunt just doesn't want you touching her right now, especially since she still needs to get dressed for today."

Himawari let out a tiny and surprised gasp as she realized her own folly. "Oh!" She gave Naruko a small, apologetic bow. "Sorry Auntie Naruko! I forgot!"

She then ran behind Bolt and started pushing him out of their mother's bedroom. "Hey, what are you doing Himawari?!" Bolt cried.

Himawari gave her big brother a small pout. "We need to let mama and Auntie Naruko change, Bolt! And that means no boys allowed!"

"Himawari," Hinata said, which earned her a curious look from her daughter, "your aunt and I would really appreciate it if you BOTH left so that we could get changed, do you understand?"

"Aw," Himawari said glumly, obviously disappointed that she wasn't going to be able to give her aunt some of her very own fashion tips like she secretly wanted to. "All right, fine." She led Bolt out the door before taking the doorknob and saying, "But make it quick, okay? I want to play with Auntie Naruko!" She then looked at Naruko and gave her an expectant and hopeful look. "You WILL play with me, won't you?"

Naruko took a moment to try and remember what "playing" was and, after she remembered all of the times when she had uttered the word herself and remembered exactly what she meant every time she said them, gave Himawari an awkward, uneasy, and yet somewhat apologetic smile before saying, "Sorry, but I don't think you're old enough for that sort of -"

"Um," Hinata abruptly interrupted, "what your aunt is trying to say is that she'd really like to play with you, but your auntie and I really need to do something first!"

"Something?" Bolt asked, poking his head from the side of the door frame with a curious and suspicious eyebrow raised. "What 'something'?"

Hinata walked up to her bedroom door and put a hand on the doorknob. "I'll tell you later. Right now, your auntie and I really need to change and get on our way, so can you two leave now, please?" The two Uzumaki siblings gave each other strange looks before nodding their heads and making their way down the hall.

Hinata let out a small sigh of relief as she slowly closed the door. That was a little bit too close for comfort. She took a moment to soak in the sudden peace and quiet before walking up to Naruko, kneeling down, and asking, "What were you thinking? Himawari asked you play with her and you immediately assume that she's talking about doing something… adult?!"

Naruko sheepishly averted her eyes away from the concerned mother. "I'm sorry, but that's the only type of 'playing' that I know of."

Hinata let out an exasperated and weary sigh as she buried her face into her hands and shook her head. "What have I gotten myself into?" she quietly wailed. She then raised her head, took a deep breath to recompose herself, and said, "Well, we might as well get dressed." She extended her hand, offering to help lift Naruko up, which only caused Naruko to cower closer to the wall again. Hinata frowned. "You must really not like being touched, huh?"

Naruko blushed as she shook her head apologetically. "I'm… I'm sorry. I'll try working on it."

Hinata gave her a kind and reassuring smile. "You don't need to if you don't want to, but thank you. That's definitely a good step forward, and it'll help you be able to interact with other people without raising as much suspicion." She then stood up and encouraged Naruko to do the same. "Now come on, let's get dressed."

At first, Naruko simply stared in awe at the woman that was showing her so much kindness. From what little she remembered, all women have treated her with either disgust or contempt, so to find a woman who was willing to show her a great amount of kindness was surprising to her.

Eventually, after she had recovered from her initial shock, she slowly stood up and let Hinata lead her to her closet, which Hinata opened up for her, indicated towards the contents inside, and said, "You can pick any clothes you like. We look about the same size, so I'm sure everything will fit."

Naruko hesitated for a moment before rummaging through Hinata's closet, looking for anything that was familiar to her. When she did, she smiled happily, picked it up, and innocently showed it to Hinata with a proud smile on her face. "Can I wear this then?"

Hinata looked at what Naruko had picked and immediately her face went beet red, because the "clothes" Naruko had apparently chosen was a piece of sexy lingerie that Ino had gotten her as a joke on her first baby shower. She swallowed down a nervous gulp before lightly pointing at the lingerie Naruko was holding and asking, "Um… no offense, but… are you planning on wearing anything else over it?"

Naruko gave the married woman a couple of confused blinks before tilting her head curiously and innocently asking, "Hm? Now why would I do that?"

Hinata simply shook her head as she gently took the lingerie out of Naruko's hands, careful not to touch her as she did so. "Maybe I should pick your clothes for you after all…."

* * *

Author's Note: For those who've been patiently waiting for the next installment of this story, here you go! Sorry for the wait, but life, you know? In all honesty, I kind of like this story a little bit more than my other Naruto story, simply because this one allows me to let me have a little bit more creative freedom, you know? Ah well, that's enough rambling from me. I hoped you liked this chapter! See you next time, whenever that might be!


	3. A Bond

"Okay," Hinata said as she and a now fully clothed Naruko walked out of her bedroom, "I'm going make a call to my husband in the Village Hidden in the Sand, so just stay put until I come back, alright?"

Naruko beamed as she nodded and gave Hinata a peace sign. "Sure thing!" She was now wearing a bright blue sundress and had fashioned her hair to her trademark twin-tails hairstyle.

Hinata hesitated for a moment before nodding her head and making her way to the family's home phone. "G-Good," she said. She still didn't know how to take all of this. It was just so strange. On one hand, a part of her wanted to be cautious about the strange intruder that had somehow managed to break into her home, sneak into her bed, completely naked even, and was possibly a threat to her and her children, and by extension, her husband; but on the other hand, she was just so... sunny. And feminine. Too feminine. No serious assassin could possibly pull off such a convincing act, and even if they could, no such assassin should be able to escape her Byakugan like the way she did, if one could even consider calling it that. She would have to call her husband and ask for his input in all of this, and even if he couldn't be of any help, she'd at least be able to ask him to ask Shikamaru for his opinion, or vice verse. Honestly, at this point, Hinata didn't care who picked up the phone first, she just wanted some clarity that she hoped one of them could provide for her.

After Hinata had left to call the seventh Hokage, Naruko turned around and let out a tiny gasp of surprise upon finding little Himawari standing and smiling expectantly behind her. "Are you ready now?" she asked, barely able to contain the excitement in her voice.

Naruko giggled before smiling back, kneeling down, and giving the little girl an affirmative nod. "For you, sweetie," she held Himawari's chin affectionately, "I'll always be ready." Her talk with Hinata while she had been getting dressed had both helped her regain a few of her memories and helped her recover from the initial shock of her mysterious ordeal, both resulting in helping to normalize her a bit. True, she still had some rather large holes in her memory, but she at least knew who Jiraiya, Iruka, Konohamaru, and a few others were, so there was that, and what little interaction with others she could recall was certainly enough to help her socialize normally with other people, or at least, enough to not raise too much suspicion like it had a few minutes earlier. She still technically didn't really know how to handle children, but thanks to Hinata giving her some quick pointers, she hoped that she faired a better chance now than she did before.

Himawari practically glowed. She then held up her stuffed teddy bear and said, "This is Mr. Kuma. He wants to play with us!"

Naruko tilted her head to the side, feigning curiosity as an amused smile graced her features. "Does he now?" She then held out her hands, silently asking Himawari if she could hold him, which Hinawari complied with, and inspected Mr. Kuma for a bit before looking back at the youngest Uzumaki and saying, "He's an absolute darling." And she meant it. True, she was pretty sure that Mr. Kuma was the first teddy bear she had ever seen, but that didn't stop him from being a genuinely adorable little stuffed bear. She gave Himawari a playful wink. "You must take very good care of him," she whispered.

Himawari beamed with pride and nodded. "Uh-huh! I comb his fur every day!"

Naruko let out an acknowledging hum. "Yes, you can certainly tell." She then stared at Mr. Kuma for a while before letting out a girlish squeal and declaring, "That's it! I can't take it anymore! He's just... too... cute!" She pressed the side of Mr. Kuma's face against the side of hers and gave Himawari a playful wink. "Mr. Kuma belongs to me now!"

Himawari gasped upon witnessing this unexpected turn of events. "No!" she cried, then quickly snatched him out of Naruko's grasp and hugged him protectively. "Mr. Kuma belongs to me!"

Realizing that Himawari didn't take her playful teasing very well, at least when it came to her teddy bear, Naruko held her hands up in an attempt to calm the young girl down and said, "Now, now, Himawari. I was only teasing. I wasn't actually going to take Mr. Kuma away from you."

Himawari sniffled a bit and gave Naruko a small, sad pout. "Really?"

Naruko nodded and gave Himawari a reassuring smile. "Really really." After making sure that the little girl had calmed down somewhat, Naruko looked at Himawari hungrily and said, "And besides," she quickly wrapped her arms around the unsuspecting little girl and gave her a cuddle, "now I realize that Himawari is much cuter than Mr. Kuma! I'll just take you instead!"

Himawari playfully screamed as she escaped out of Naruko's affectionate grasp and made a run for it. "Big brother, help!" Himawari cried in between laughs. "Auntie Naruko wants to take me away!"

"Himawari!" Naruko cried, feigning disappointment and putting on a dejected pout, as she chased after her. "Come back! We're not done playing yet!"

Eventually, the chase moved into the living room, where Bolt was sitting on the family sofa as he clicked away at the video game in his hands, merely glancing up disinterestedly as the chase continued multiple laps around the sofa, with Naruko and Himawari laughing happily the entire time until Naruko stopped and turned herself around, catching Himawari as she accidentally ran right into her and wrapped her into another cuddle, which Himawari happily allowed. It was then that Naruko turned to Bolt and asked, "Bolt, don't you want to come and play with us?"

Bolt gave her another disinterested glance before focusing his attention back to his game. "Nah, I'm not interested."

Himawari scowled before giving her brother a disapproving frown, hugging Mr. Kuma tighter, and stating, "Don't feel bad, Auntie Naruko. Big brother is just always like that."

Naruko looked down and gave Himawari a questionable look. "Oh, really?"

Himawari nodded. "Uh-huh. All he ever does nowadays is play on that dumb game system he has." She then frowned. "I don't even get how the games he plays are supposed to be fun. All it looks like is a bunch of tiny shapes and then he just presses buttons every once in a while."

Bolt scowled at her. "Of course it does." He returned back to looking at his screen. "You're too young to understand these types of games, Himawari."

"Well, can you explain them to me then?" Naruko asked before letting go of Himawari and sitting besides Bolt with a warm and expectant smile on her face.

Bolt blushed before looking back at his game and answering, "Shikadai, Inojin, and I are performing a raid. I need to pull my weight around or else we're all going to lose."

"O-Oh."

The uncertainty in her voice did not go unnoticed from Bolt. "You don't understand a word I'm saying, do you?"

Naruko let out an embarrassed chuckle before sticking out her tongue playfully as she hit the side of her head and admitted, "Nope. Sorry. Actually, this is the first time I've ever seen a game like this."

Himawari gasped as Bolt gave Naruko a surprised glance. "Really?" Himawari asked.

Naruko nodded. "Yep! Times sure have changed, haven't they?"

Bolt sighed before going back to his raid. "I guess," he mumbled before the words, "You and Your Raid Win!" appeared across his screen. He grinned as he quickly jumped up and let out a celebratory, "Yes!"

"Oh, did you just win?"

Bolt frowned. "Um, yeah. So?"

Naruko gasped and clapped her hands joyfully together. "Wow, that's amazing!"

Bolt blushed as he averted his eyes from the admittedly pretty girl who he suspected was only pretending to be his aunt, stuffed one of his hands into his pockets, shrugged, and replied, "Not really."

"Yes, really!" Naruko gently insisted, playfully poking the side of Bolt's face with her finger, earning her an embarrassed pout, which she giggled over. "Himawari and I could barely understand what was going on, but you were able to do it so easily. And judging by how hard you were concentrating, it must've been very challenging." She smiled at him proudly. "You must be very good at it."

Bolt blushed even harder. "W-Well, I guess I AM pretty good at it." He knew that she was just buttering him up, but he couldn't help it. It felt good to be praised, especially from a woman as beautiful as her.

Naruko giggled as she affectionately ruffled Bolt's hair a bit. "See? Was that so hard to admit?"

It was then that Hinata briskly walked into the living room, along with someone that Himawari and Bolt had thought that neither of them would be able to see for quite a while longer. As they entered into the living room, hastily whispering to each other as they did, Himawari, upon hearing all the commotion they were making, looked towards them and let out a gasp of joy and surprise. "Papa!" she cried, running up to her father to wrap his lower half into a great, big hug.

Bolt turned around and gave his father a look of surprise. "Dad?! What are you doing here?"

Naruto smiled and hugged Himawari back before turning to his son and answering, "Um, well, mom called me and told me that my, uh," he turned back uncertainly to Hinata, "sister?" Hinata quickly nodded. "Sister...," he turned back to Bolt, "had come by for a visit, so I came back as soon as I could using a combination of Sage Mode and the Body-Flicker Technique to say 'hi'."

Bolt scowled as he eyed his parents suspiciously. Something was definitely up.

"Naruto?" Naruko quietly called, drawing everyone's attention towards her as she did, and causing Naruto to gulp nervously, turn pale, and basically look as if he had just seen a ghost. Naruko observed Naruto from where she stood for a while before letting out a happy sigh of relief. Yes, he may have been older now, but there was no mistaking it: this was Naruto, the one person she knew like the back of her hand but had never really met before until now, her Naruto. She smiled warmly at him. "Hi." She placed her hands over her chest and looked at him as one would look at a good friend who they had not seen in years. She chuckled lightly. "You've gotten taller."

* * *

Author's Note: After so long, his story is finally updated! So sorry for making fans of this story wait so long for an update, but now I finally got around to it. It was surprisingly fun and somewhat easy to write Naruko, Himawari, and Bolt's interactions here. Their characters/personalities really play off of each other well and naturally! Again, sorry for the wait, but hey, one of the advantages to having such a long wait in-between chapters is that I have a better idea on how the story will go from this point on, so there's that! Now that Naruto is here, what will happen? I hope fans of this story are looking forward to it! See you next time!


	4. A Reunion

"H-Hey," Naruto muttered, quickly glancing back at his wife, who signaled for him to keep going and to act a bit more natural. "Hey!" He took a few steps towards her. "It's nice to see you again!" He awkwardly offered to give her a hug, and before he could pull out due to having second thoughts, Naruko gladly took him up on his half-hearted offer; running up to him and jumping into his arms with enough force to have potentially knocked the both of them down. Naruto blushed upon being so happily embraced and sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck before taking the opportunity to look at her through his Sage Mode. He only used it for a split second, but for Naruto, a split second was all he needed to truly understand the gravity of the situation. "It's been too long," he said, continuing his and Hinata's charade.

Naruko giggled as she teasingly tapped her index finger against Naruto's nose. "Of course it has, silly! You never call anymore!" She gave him a pout. "How mean! And after all the things I've done for you too!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Um... like what, exactly?"

Naruko placed a finger on her cheek and tapped it cutely as she tried to recall all of the favors she had performed for him. "Hmm, let's see." She then used that same hand to help her count. "I helped convince Jiraiya to help train you for the Chunin Exams, I helped you pull a prank on Iruka-sensei, I helped you defeat Ebisu, I helped you try to convince the third Hokage to keep your class photo as it was, I tried to help convince Killer Bee to help you train..."

Naruto cringed. "Y-You remembered all of that?"

Naruko smiled. "Of course I did! How could I possibly forget? After all, I had to -"

"Gah!" Naruto cried, placing his hand firmly around Naruko's mouth and successfully cutting off the rest of that sentence. "Alright, I get it! Just," he leaned closer towards her, "don't mention any of that to the kids, alright?"

Naruko's eyes widened upon realizing what Naruto meant and gave him a playful and affirmative wink and salute, while mumbling an, "Okay," behind Naruto's mouth.

Naruto let out a sigh of relief before removing his hand, scratching his head, and thinking, "Well, now what am I going to do?"

After considering his options for a moment, Naruto raised a hand up, silently instructing for everyone to wait a moment before disappearing in a flash and reappearing the same way moments later, only this time, with Konohamaru in tow. Konohamaru clapped his hands and rubbed them together in anticipation. "Alright! What do you need me to do for ya', big b-". He then finally set his eyes on Naruko, causing his jaw to drop out of surprise and horror.

Naruko curiously tilted her head to the side as she stared back at the somewhat familiar face. "Hmm. Don't I know you from somewhere?" she asked as she held her chin as she tried to remember who the person in front of her was.

Konohamaru snapped himself out of his own stupor and turned back to the seventh Hokage. "Naruto, what's going on here?!" he hissed. He then pointed towards Naruko. "Who is that?!"

"I don't know!" Naruto hissed back. "Which is why I need you to keep an eye on her and the kids until we do!" Naruto then smiled towards Naruko and his kids. "Say, how about you guys take Auntie Naruko out on a tour of the Leaf Village with Uncle Konohamaru, huh? Should be fun, right?"

"Big bro," Konohamaru hissed, "what are you doing?! I can't do this!"

"Well you're going to have to!" Naruto hissed back. "Because you're the only one who can!" When Konohamaru still looked reluctant to do it, Naruto pleadingly added, "Please, Konohamaru."

Konohamaru let out an exasperated sigh. "Fine," he then pointed at Naruto, "but you'd better take me out for ramen after this!"

Naruto nodded. "Deal."

The two then turned around and let out surprised gasps upon realizing that Naruko had somehow managed to sneak up on them and that her face was now mere inches away from Konohamaru's, causing him to jump back a bit as well. It was then that her face lit up and she clapped her hands together excitedly. "That's right!" she cried. "Konohamaru!" She giggled. "My, you've grown!"

Konohamaru gulped nervously, uncertain as to how to reply to that. "Um, y-yeah, I did, didn't I?" Naruko nodded and smiled warmly at him before giving him an angry slap onto his collar bone, taking everyone by surprise at the sudden and seemingly uncharacteristic action. Konohamaru rubbed the spot on which he slapped him and rubbed it tenderly and protectively before gaping at her. "Where did that come from?!"

Naruko crossed her arms and gave him an angry pout. "From back when you forced me to embarrass myself in front of your friends!"

Konohamaru squinted as he tried to recall exactly what event she was referring to. "I'm still kind of lost..."

"Back when you locked yourself into the Hokage's office and refused to come out," Naruko clarified.

Naruto and Konohamaru's eyes widened upon realizing just exactly what event she was talking about. "You remembered that?" Naruto asked incredulously.

"Of course I did!" Naruko said, clearly offended that they had forgotten it so easily. "How could I possibly forget the time I went all out in begging little Konohamaru," she pinched one of Konohamaru's cheeks playfully, "to get out of an office that he locked himself into?" She crossed her arms again. "I was so hurt when you didn't even at least say something back to me! And there was such a cold breeze and you made me look bad in front of your friends!"

Konohamaru nodded her head slowly, only barely being able to keep up as the situation only got weirder and weirder as time went on. "I-If it makes you feel any better," he stammered, "your voice was so luscious and magnetic. I was afraid that if I had started talking to you then I'd end up getting sucked in and you'd eventually find a way to convince me to get out."

Naruko let out a flattered gasp as she adorably cupped her face with her hands. "Really?" she asked.

Konohamaru blushed a little as he slowly nodded. "Y-Yeah."

Naruko giggled. "Oh." She then cupped his face with her hands. "I can never stay mad at you." She lightly flicked the edge of his nose as she said, "You are just. So. Cute."

Konohamaru blushed even harder as he gulped nervously and noticed how dry the inside of his mouth was. "Bro," he, using his facial expressions, silently said to Naruto, "I don't think I can do this!"

"Stay strong, Konohamaru!" Naruto silently encouraged, beads of sweat running down his forehead upon seeing just how skilled this girl who resembled his Sexy Technique so well was at using her charms. "Think about the ramen! The ramen!"

Konohamaru gulped again and nodded his head as he forced himself to look at Naruko, Himawari, and Bolt with an excited smile on his face and cried, "Well, what are you guys waiting for? Get your shoes and let's show your aunt around the village!"

"Yay!" Himawari cried, jumping up and down in excitement before running up, grabbing a hold on one of Naruko's hands, and dragging her towards the door. "Now I can show you all of my favorite places to play!"

Naruko smiled. "I'm looking forward to it." Just as they were about to pass by Hinata, however, she looked up to her with a slightly worried look on her face and quietly asked, "What are shoes? Are they like knee-high boots?"

Himawari stopped dragging Naruko forward and let out a surprised gasp. "Auntie Naruko, have you never worn shoes before?"

Naruko looked down at her and shook her head. "Nope. Not even once. I usually go around barefoot."

"Wow. But doesn't that hurt your feet or make them dirty?"

"W-What she means by barefoot," Hinata quickly interjected, "is that your aunt usually walks around in flip flops or sandals." She then turned back to Naruko and whispered. "You can borrow a pair of mine."

As the three women prepared to make their leave, Naruto looked at his son and asked, "Are you not going too, son?"

Bolt eyes his father and one of his senseis suspiciously before placing his hands into his pockets and giving them a nonchalant shrug. "Eh, sure, why not." He then walked past them and added, "Just know that I'm going to try and get a lot of embarrassing stories about you two from her, 'kay?"

Naruto cringed. "Um, sure, I guess I can't really stop you if you do, can I?"

Bolt grinned mischievously. "Yep." As far as Bolt could tell, something strange was definitely going on, but what it was, he couldn't really tell. He had his suspicions about Naruko being an imposter, but if she had known his dad and Konohamaru-sensei so well, then that probably wasn't it. Maybe it was because Auntie Naruko loved to rile the two of them up so much? Perhaps, but as far as he was concerned, that was the best part about her. Either way, he was going to get to the bottom of this, but until then, he'd enjoy his time with his new favorite aunt.

After Konohamaru, Naruko, and the kids finally left to show Naruko around the village and only after Hinata had closed the door behind them, did Naruto fall down into a chair and rub his face as he let out an exasperated groan. "What did I do to deserve this?"

Hinata gave him a small and amused smile before tenderly walking up to him, rubbing his shoulders, and saying, "A lot of things, unfortunately. But don't worry," she leaned down and kissed him on the cheek, "you'll get through this just like you always do." This earned her a smile from her husband, which she happily returned before musing, "Your Sexy Technique really was lovely. You did a really good job designing her." She then gave him a confused frown. "Though, I never quite understood why you designed her to take her looks after you. Seems like it would ruin the illusion."

Naruto groaned as he sunk lower into his seat. "The reason for that is... complicated... and embarrassing."

Realizing just how uncomfortable her husband seemed to be about the subject, Hinata placed a gentle hand onto one of Naruto's shoulders and gave it a comforting squeeze. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but I think I'd be a lot more help if I did."

Naruto sighed as he leaned his head back against the chair. "Yeah, I guess you're right." He sat up and then leaned forward, laying his arms on top of his thighs. "The truth is... I was so lonely back then. It got to the point where I didn't even care what type of attention was paid to me or where it came from. I craved it so bad... which is why I developed the Sexy Technique: so that I could be less lonely."

Hinata nodded. "I see. So you developed the technique and then used it on random people on the streets, causing a racket with the person you used it on and whoever was there to witness it at the time. It didn't matter that they were angry with you, as long as someone was paying some sort of attention to you, you liked it, because it was the only type of attention you could ever get."

Naruto cringed. "Well, sort of."

Hinata cocked an eyebrow in surprise. "Hmm?"

"That's... sort of only the half of it." He then blushed out of embarrassment and let out another exasperated sigh before explaining, "See, the reason why the Sexy Technique looks just like me is because...," he shook his head, "I used to sometimes pretend that she was my mother."

Hinata's eyes widened in surprise. "W-What?"

Naruto sighed as he buried his face into his hands, shamefaced. "Yeah. I used to transform in front of the mirror and pretend that I was talking to my mother and that she would talk back. I didn't know what my mother looked like at the time, but I was smart enough to realize that kids took after their parents, so that's why I fashioned mine after myself." Naruto then began to rub his hands uncomfortably. "Then I realized that I wanted a mother who would shower me with attention and praise, who would dote on me and tease me every once in a while, so that became a part of the character. Then I realized that I also wanted someone who could keep up with me, who could play with me no matter how long, so she was more youthful than mothers normally were. Then I realized that I wanted a mom that I could brag and be proud about, who everyone would love and would end up loving me too, so I made her as stereotypically beautiful as I possibly could. Then one thing led to another and it became the prank and technique everyone had come to know it as." He sighed wearily as he rubbed his temples. "And now my own technique has come back to haunt me."

Hinata frowned. "You say that as if you're ashamed of her."

"Well, yeah! Wouldn't you be? I mean," Naruto stood up and indicated towards himself, "I was so desperate for attention that I made a technique so that I could become my own mother! An extremely unhealthy, unrealistic, and idealistic mother! And even after that, I was still willing to show off a naked version of her to strangers and force myself to do the most embarrassing poses and say the most embarrassing things! All because I attention deprived! But I don't feel like that anymore." He went up to his wife and gently held her hands and rubbed them. "I've got you now. And the kids, and all of our friends, and my actual mother who looks nothing like the pretend one that I made for myself..." He paused for a moment before shaking his head. "And with something like her coming into our lives like this... it's as if the universe is trying to tell me that I don't cherish all of you enough, and that's not true. I don't want it to be true."

"Of course it isn't," Hinata gently reassured. "We don't even know what she is or why she's here in the first place, so please, don't talk like that until we know for sure, okay?"

Naruto thought about it for a moment before giving his wife a grateful smile and an understanding nod. "Yeah, I guess you're right about that." He gave her a peck on the forehead. "Thanks. I can always count on you to be there for me when I'm down."

Hinata smiled. "Of course." She then frowned and asked, "So... what exactly is going on here? Do you know?"

Naruto solemnly shook his head. "No, I don't. Sage Mode couldn't pick anything up. It was strange. It was almost as if -"

"As if she wasn't even there to begin with," Hinata finished.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. So I guess it was the same thing with your Byakugan?"

"Yes. And it isn't a genjutsu either, I already checked." They both thought for a moment before Hinata asked, "Do you really think it's possible that the technique has actually... turned to life on its own?"

Naruto grimaced and shook his head. "What? No way! That's not possible! Her being one of Orochimaru's experiments is more likely than that!" Their eyes then both widened in horror at the thought of that very real possibility. "You don't think...?"

Hinata shook her head. "No, of course not! He would've told you if he did, right?" She paused. "You might want to check up on him just in case though."

Naruto sighed. "Great. Just great." It was then that the couple heard their home phone ringing and Naruto went off to answer it. After a few moments of waiting, Naruto finally came back and, with a weary sigh, explained, "That was Shikamaru. I need to get back to the meeting, and pronto."

Hinata gave him an apprehensive look. "Do you really have to go so soon? We could really use your help on this, especially considering the fact that this probably concerns you more than anyone else."

Naruto shook his head regretfully. "I'm sorry, but I ditched the meeting the moment you called, and I left the village the moment you told me what was going on." He let out a good-natured chuckle. "And it doesn't help that the other Kages are running out of patience with my constant lack of punctuality." He went up and gave his wife a goodbye kiss. "I'll be back as quickly as I can, but it's probably going to be a couple of days at best. Your best bet is to probably take this up with Kakashi or granny Tsunade. Pick their brains as much as you can so that we can possibly understand what's going on, alright? At the very least, keep the kids safe until I get back, okay?"

Hinata nodded. "Yes, I understand." She returned his kiss with a kiss of her own. "And make sure you don't rush through your meeting either. Your responsibilities as a Hokage are just as important as your responsibilities as a father and husband."

Naruto nodded his head understandingly. "Got it." He then took a step back. "Well, I'm off. You all be safe now." And then he was gone.

Hinata let out a weary sigh. "In all honesty, it's our sanity that I'm more worried about than our safety."

* * *

Author's Note: A little Fourth of July gift to all of the readers who celebrate that. I hoped you liked it! Hopefully this will clarify what's going on a little bit more? Either that, or perhaps I should consider labeling this under the "Mystery" section. Either way, Konohamaru has been put into the mix, and Naruko is now allowed to go outside! Oh, the possibilities! Until next time!


	5. A Switch

"Auntie Naruko!" Himawari called out as she ran towards her with a small box in her hand. Once she reached her, Himawari extended said box towards her and said, "Here."

Naruko smiled before gladly taking the box, sitting down on a nearby public bench, taking off the lid, and looking inside. She curiously tilted her head to the side upon laying eyes on the contents inside and asked, "They looks nice, but... what exactly are they?"

Himawari took one of the box's contents and held it up for her to see. "It's dango! It's really good!" She pointed it towards Naruko's mouth. "Say, 'Ah'," Himawari instructed, demonstrating what she wished for Naruko to do herself.

Naruko looked between Himawari and the dango before saying, "Ah," and imitating exactly what Himawari had demonstrated for her to do and let out a surprised yelp as Himawari inserted the treat into her mouth, instinctively shutting her mouth as she did, which was Himawari's cue to pull the stick out and leave the actual food inside.

"Now chew and swallow," Himawari said.

Bolt took a stick of dango from the box and wagged it disapprovingly at Himawari before nonchalantly putting it into his mouth. "Come on, Himawari" he scolded in between chews, "you're acting as if she's never eaten before."

Naruko, mouth still full of food, made a faraway glance as she pondered that very thought. HAD she eaten before? She honestly couldn't remember! Before she could try to though, the moment she had started chewing the dango, its flavors practically made her squeal from experiencing the sensation of eating something so sweet and flavorful for the first time. She swallowed before looking down at the rest of the dango still resting in the box and gushing, "This stuff is amazing!"

Himawari smiled and nodded her head in agreement. "It is, isn't it?"

Naruko nodded. "Uh-huh!" She then picked up another stick of dango and said, "Ah," before closing her mouth and taking the treat off of its stick.

Bolt gave her a funny look. "You don't have to say, 'Ah' every time you eat something you know."

Himawari giggled. "Auntie Naruko's just being silly, Bolt!"

"This was a mistake," Konohamaru mumbled to himself as Himawari and Naruko playfully took turns feeding each other as Bolt shook his head exasperatedly as they did. Konohamaru ran his hands through his hair anxiously. Normally, a mission like this would've been child's play for him, but Naruko, or whoever this person was who resembled Naruto's Sexy Technique so much, was just so... charming. And nice. And beautiful. And many other things that wouldn't normally register as a threat to an elite ninja such as himself. And worst of all, just like when he was younger and had resolved to lock himself in the Hokage's office, he was afraid that he was getting sucked into her warmth, and if his eyes weren't deceiving him, then so were most passerbys too. Yes, the men stopping to look at her was expected, but Konohamaru found that even OTHER WOMEN were seemingly becoming mesmerized by the sunny beauty. Konohamaru didn't know how much more of this he could take. Back when he was younger, as much as he hated to admit it, he had had a bit of a crush on the previously thought fictitious woman, but now that he had been subjected to her for a considerately longer amount of time than Naruto would normally use his Sexy Technique for, he was finding it harder and harder to resist admiring her and stay professional.

"Konohamaru," a luscious voice softly called out, successfully taking him out of his thoughts and prompting him to turn towards it, only for him to wince once he realized that it had belonged to the woman who had unpredictably caused more trouble for him than most other enemies have. She picked up a stick of dango and held it up to feed it to him. "Say, 'Ah'."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... 'Ah'," Naruko said again, gently poking the sides of Konohamaru's lips with the stick of dango in the hopes of coaxing him to open his mouth.

Konohamaru blinked before burying his face back into his hands, shaking his head, and mumbling, "I can't do this."

"Hmm?" Naruko asked, tilting her head to the side cutely, only causing Konohamaru to confirm exactly what he had feared all along.

"I need to get away from all of this," Konohamaru thought, and frantically began to try and think of a way to do just that without leaving Himawari and Bolt with a potential assassin (which, if she was, she was ridiculously good at being).

Thankfully, for him, the universe was more than willing to give him a little hand on this one. "Hey, cousin!" a familiar voice called from behind him. Konohamaru quickly turned around to find his cousin, late Uncle Asuma's daughter, Mirai Sarutobi cheerfully waving at him with a smile on her face, which quickly disappeared upon bearing witness to the panicked and nervous look on Konohamaru's face. "Oh, geez," she said, holding her hands up and taking a cautious step back, "you sick or something? Because you don't look so well."

Konohamaru let out a gigantic sigh of relief. "Mirai!" he cried as he grabbed a hold of her shoulders, causing her to let out a surprised yelp as he did. "What are you doing right now?"

"Um," Mirai said, slowly holding up a couple of manila envelopes that she had been holding in her hands, "delivering some paperwork to the academy?"

Konohamaru took a moment to process that particular information before giving Mirai a big, grateful smile, letting go of her shoulders, and saying, "That's perfect!" He then snatched the envelopes away from her. "Let's switch missions!"

Mirai's eyes widened in surprise. "Wait, what?!"

"Don't worry," Konohamaru reassured, "all I'm doing is showing Himawari and Bolt's aunt around the village! Piece of cake, right?"

Mirai's eyes widened even further in disbelief. "Sunny and Bolt have another aunt?!" She then shook her head frantically. "Wait, no, that's not the point! Ninjas can't just switch missions with each other like this!"

"Don't worry," Konohamaru said, already beginning to back away from her. "Whatever you're getting paid, I'll double it!"

"Yeah, and that's another thing! I'm not getting paid for this!"

"Please!" Konohamaru begged. "I just need to get away for a bit, alright? I'll explain everything to you later, but for now, just do this one favor for me, okay?"

Mirai flung her hands up and let out an exasperated sigh. "Fine!" She then pointed angrily at him. "But you'd better pay me back for this!"

"Got it!" Konohamaru cried before jumping onto one of the roofs and making his way to the academy.

Mirai shook her head disapprovingly before turning around and finally getting a good look at Naruko for the first time, whose gaze had followed Konohamaru as he had made his hasty escape. Her eyes widened in surprise upon finding out that little Himawari and Bolt did indeed have another aunt. "Is everything alright?" Naruko asked her, the concern evident in her voice as she looked at Mirai worryingly.

"Um, yeah, of course it is," she answered, subtly leaning in every direction she could to get a better look at the admittedly beautiful woman that bore a strong resemblance to the seventh Hokage as Naruko let out a small sigh of relief.

"That's good," Naruko said with a smile, as Mirai slowly began to realize, based on Naruko's looks and mannerisms, why exactly Konohamaru had so desperately wanted to get away, causing her to snicker sadistically at her cousin's somewhat pathetic plight. Maybe it was because she was so beautiful or maybe it was because she was so beautiful but still bore such a strong resemblance to Naruto that he had flaked, but either way, she knew that she was never going to let him live this one down. Naruko tilted her head curiously to the side once she had noticed Mirai's poorly hidden laughter and gave her a look of concern. "Is... something wrong?"

Mirai shook her head and waved her hand reassuringly. "No, no, nothing's wrong. It's just," Mirai stopped laughing for a moment to cross her arms, get one last good look at the woman in front of her, let out an amused chuckle, and shake her head in awe, "wow... you are seriously pretty."

Naruko blushed and sheepishly bowed her head as she flashed Mirai a flattered smile. "Aw," she said, "thanks." She then got a good look at Mirai and added, "You're really pretty too."

Mirai placed her hands over her chest and let out a flattered gasp. "Aw, and you're super nice too!"

"Oh, stop it!" Naruko gently reprimanded as the blush on her face turned a deeper shade of red as she placed her hands on her cheeks embarrassingly. "You're making me blush!"

"Oh my gosh," Mirai inwardly gushed. "She's adorable!" She was going to have to retract her earlier decision to hold this incident against Konohamaru and instead only hold it against him every once in a while. She figured that if she were a boy, it'd be pretty hard for her to stay professional around this girl too.

"Mirai!" Himawari cried as she ran towards her, arms opened wide for a great big hug, which Mirai gave her.

"Hey there, Sunny!" Mirai greeted, ruffling up her hair a bit, earning her a giggle from the young girl as Bolt coolly made his way towards the group of girls. Mirai nodded towards him. "Staying cool, Bolt?"

"Humph," Bolt said, averting his eyes away from Mirai's gaze as a light blush spread across his face.

Mirai laughed before turning back to Himawari, nodding towards Naruko, and asking, "This your aunt?"

Himawari nodded. "Uh-huh!" She held one of Naruko's hands. "We're showing her around the village!"

"Are you now?" Mirai asked playfully. "Well then, as your new tour guide, you need to tell me where you haven't gone to so that I can take you there!"

"Huh?" Bolt asked, raising an eyebrow inquisitively. "Why you? What happened to Konohamaru-sensei?"

Mirai waved Bolt question off. "Cousin forgot that he had a last minute errand to do, so until he gets back, I'm your guide! And let's be honest," she looked down at Himawari and whispered, "I'm a lot more fun than he is." Himawari giggled as Mirai clapped her hands together before placing them onto her hips and asking, "So... where haven't you guys gone yet?"

Himawari and Bolt frowned, glancing at each other in the hopes that the other one would have an answer for that particular question before they looked back at Mirai and shrugged. "I'm pretty sure we've seen every important tourist attraction already," Bolt answered.

Mirai's eyes widened in surprise. "What? That can't be! It's still so early in the day!"

Bolt nonchalantly shrugged. "Yeah, well, when you really think about it, our village doesn't really have that many notable public landmarks," Bolt explained.

"And we've already shown her all of our favorite places to play!" Himawari added.

Mirai scratched the back of her head as she awkwardly winced. "Geez, I hate to admit it, but yeah. Other than our ninjas, we don't really have that much going for the village, do we?" After taking a moment to think the situation over, she suddenly clapped her hands and said, "Alrighty then!" She turned her attention towards Naruko. "Then let's have our guest decide!"

Naruko's eyes widened in surprise. "Hmm?"

"You tell us what you want to do, and if our village has it, then we'll take you there!" Mirai explained. "Well, got any ideas?"

Naruko thought for a moment, but upon realizing that she had no idea what to do besides what she normally did, she gave Mirai the best possible answer that she could muster in front of the children. "Let's have some fun!" she said enthusiastically.

Mirai took a moment to think the suggestion over before nodding her head and saying, "Yeah... Yeah!" She pointed at Naruko. "I like the way you think!" She then placed her hands onto her hips. "I spend so much time earning money from missions and paying for necessities that I never actually get to enjoy any of it! So yeah, let's go have fun!"

"Now Mirai is acting like SHE'S the one touring the village," Bolt thought.

"Then what should we do?" Himawari asked.

Mirai held her chin as she contemplated about it before snapping her fingers and answering, "Why don't we go to the movie theater? I hear they just released the first movie for a reboot of 'The Adventures of Princess Fun'. Wanna check it out?"

Naruko placed her index finger onto her chin curiously. "Movie?"

"I know, right?" Mirai said with an exasperated sigh. "The first movie in the original series wasn't really that good in my opinion, but I guess enough people liked it enough to make it a franchise. Hopefully the reboot fixes some of the problems of the original. I also hear that they got a lot of the original actors to make cameos, so that's cool too, I guess."

"That's the movie with the princess and the rainbow chakra, right?" Himawari asked her brother.

Bolt nodded. "Yeah." He figured Himawari would be interested in it. The old films were her and their dad's favorite movies.

Himawari gasped before tugging at the ends of Naruko's sundress and asking, "Can we go? Can we go?"

Naruko smiled down at her. "I don't see why not."

"But we don't have any money to buy tickets," Bolt pointed out.

"Ah, don't worry!" Mirai reassured before pointing at herself with her thumb. "I'll pay for you guys." She then leaned towards Naruko and whispered, "I'm crazy about these kids."

Naruko giggled and gave her a small nod. "That makes two of us."

* * *

"Hmm," Kakashi said, holding his chin as he attempted to process everything that Hinata had just told him, as well as come up with a suitable explanation for it. "Yes, that certainly IS troubling, isn't it?"

"So, what do you think, Kakashi?" Might Guy asked from his wheelchair across the table. "What exactly is going on here?"

Kakashi let out a weary sigh. "In all honesty, I haven't the slightest idea. This whole situation is still a little bit too vague for any of us to pinpoint what's going on, though Naruto and Hinata's attempts at solving it have certainly narrowed it down a bit. So at the very least, this definitely isn't a technique that I'm familiar with."

"And I sincerely doubt that a technique that can bypass the detection of both the Byakugan and Naruto's Sage Mode exists," Tsunade, looking significantly younger than she previously used to look, replied. "And if we're ruling out that this is a ninja technique at all, then that just leaves one other possibility."

Kakashi, Guy, and Hinata all nodded grimly. "It might be the work of science," Guy stated.

"And if it's science that we're talking about," Tsunade said, "then there's only one person out there with the potential who we need to talk to."

"Orochimaru," Hinata muttered under her breath, apprehensive about the inevitable meeting they were going to have with the ex-criminal Sanin.

* * *

Author's Note: Well, that didn't take long. Konohamaru has now switched with Mirai and Hinata and friends are going to confront Orochimaru about this whole incident! I wonder what will happen next? Hope you liked this chapter! See you next time!


	6. A Hit

"Man," Mirai groaned as she, Naruko, Himawari, and Bolt slowly left the movie theater, placing her hands lazily behind her head as she did, "what a complete letdown, huh?"

"Yeah!" Himawari cried, hanging her head in disappointment at the very thought of the disappointing remake of her favorite film that they had just forced themselves to sit through. "Princess Fun was supposed to be kind like mama and strong like papa, but instead, they made her mean and weak!" Unshed tears were beginning to form at the corners of her eyes. "This Princess Fun isn't Princess Fun at all!"

Bolt nodded. "Yeah, that movie was kind of messed up." Sure, the Princess Fun movies had never been his favorite growing up, but even he had to admit that this film was a complete slap in the face to what everything that the original films had been.

"Really?" Naruko innocently asked. She curiously placed a finger onto one of her cheeks as she cutely tilted her head to the side. "But she defeated the bad guy in the end, didn't she? So she couldn't have been that weak, right?"

"But she was only able to do it after her boyfriend told her she could!" little Himawari argued in dismay.

"Yeah!" Mirai said. "In the original movies, she was never like that! She'd always believe that she could beat the bad guy, no matter how bad things looked! The way this film went, you'd think she'd need encouragement from her boyfriend every time things got hard!" She then began to ruffle through her hair in frustration. "And why did they even feel the need to add a boyfriend character in the first place?! The whole point of the original movies was that she was a princess who wanted to go out and see the world and go on adventures! Instead, they made her into a bratty princess that can only see the light after the love of her life tells her what it is and encourages her to go out and take it!"

Naruko giggled lightheartedly at how animated Mirai was getting. "For someone who said that she was never that big of a fan, you sure seem to be very passionate about this," she noted.

"Well, duh! It doesn't take a fan of the movies to know that this film was a complete slap in the face to the old ones! And even if it wasn't, it was still a bad movie all on its own!" Mirai let out an exasperated sigh as she folded her arms and shook her head in utter disappointment. "Honestly, who thought that they could release something like this and get away with it?"

Naruko hummed understandingly as she tilted her head and contemplated about the subject at hand. "I don't know." She shrugged sheepishly. "I actually kind of liked it."

"Well, of course you would!" Mirai exclaimed. "This was your first one! You've got nothing to compare it to!"

Naruko blushed slightly as gave her an acknowledging nod. "Still..."

It was then that little Himawari tugged at the edge of her sundress and asked, "So what exactly did auntie Naruko like about the movie?"

Naruko thought about it for a moment before answering, "I don't know." She then remembered all of the scenes with the love interest that Princess Fun had, the same ones that Mirai and Himawari disliked so much. "I actually kind of liked the boyfriend," she answered thoughtfully.

Mirai scoffed. "Why? He was just another generic live interest. There was literally nothing interesting about him!"

Naruko bowed her head as she played with her fingers. "Maybe," she admitted softly. "But," she looked back up at Mirai dreamily, "that type of character...," she let out an embarrassed giggle, "wouldn't it be nice to meet a man like that?"

Mirai let out a tiny gasp of surprise as Himawari and Bolt gave her curious glances of their own before a mischievous smirk appeared on Mirai's face as she crossed her arms knowingly. "Ah, so that's what it is."

Naruko's eyes widened in surprise. "Hmm?"

Mirai leaned forward and tilted her head playfully. "You hopeless romantic, you."

Naruko blushed as she cupped her face with her hands and shook her head bashfully. "Oh, stop it!"

Mirai snickered. "Well, now I know who to take with me the next time I'm in a romantic movie mood," she teased, preparing to poke at her physically as she was verbally, but gave her a concerned and confused look when Naruko let out a small yelp and jumped back to avoid it. "Huh, someone's a little bit jumpy, aren't they?"

Naruko turned away from Mirai, Himawari, and Bolt's questioning gazes and anxiously brushed the side of her bangs before quietly saying, "Sorry. I just don't feel comfortable about being touched."

"But you seem to be okay with touching other people," Bolt nonchalantly pointed out.

"Yeah!" Himawari cried, giving her aunt a worried and concerned look. "Why is that auntie Naruko?"

Naruko shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I really don't remember."

"Don't remember, or don't WANT to remember?" Mirai thought. "With the whole hopeless romantic schtick and this borderline unreasonable fear of being touched, maybe she's been in her fair share of bad relationships?"

"NARUTOOOOOO!"

Mirai blinked a few times in confusion. "Hmm?" She was about to turn around to see what exactly all of the commotion was about, but the moment she began, she spotted Sakura running past her at breakneck speed with a determined and irritated look on her face, with one of her fists clenched tightly and pulled back, fully prepared to completely obliterate whatever it was that had earned her ire in the first place. When she once again faced forward to see exactly what she was aiming for, her eyes widened and her jaw dropped upon realizing that the only possible target she could be aiming for... was the equally terrified Naruko herself.

The punch... it was if it had been in painstakingly slow motion the entire time. It was as if Mirai, Himawari, Bolt, and even every other onlooker surrounding them could see ever single ugly and painful detail of the punch landing against Naruko's shocked face with enough force to send shock waves across her entire cheek and with enough power to slowly lift Naruko's feet off of the ground and send her spiraling towards the nearest fence down the road and crash into it, her body and the force that had been placed on it obliterating the wooden wall into a million little pieces the moment they made contact with one another.

Himawari shrieked in terror as Bolt screamed out in shock. "Auntie Naruko!" Himawari cried, quickly running as fast as she could to her aunt's side to check up on her.

"Oh man!" Bolt uttered incredulously as he followed his sister's lead.

"Hmph!" Sakura said, dusting off her hands before giving Naruko a clearly disgusted and disapproving look. "Serves him right!" She shook her head and let out an exasperated sigh. "Honestly, and here I thought that he finally grew out of it too!"

"What the heck was that?!" Mirai cried, her head darting quickly between the incapacitated Naruko to the disappointed Sakura and back before finally settling on confronting the pink haired kunoichi about her actions.

Sakura cracked her knuckles satisfactorily. "Knocking some sense into an idiot hokage," she answered. She frowned as she placed her hands onto her hips. "Once an idiot, always an idiot it seems!"

Mirai gaped at her incredulously. "What are you talking about?!" she cried. "Just because she's the hokage's sister doesn't mean punching her will knock some sense into him!"

Sakura raised an eyebrow in surprise. "The hokage's sister?" She then thought it over for a moment before letting out another exasperated sigh and shaking her head. "Oh brother." She turned back to Mirai. "Looks like somebody's been played."

"What?!"

Sakura rubbed her temples wearily before answering, "Look, I don't know how all this started, but even you should know that Naruto has no surviving family. This whole 'auntie Naruko' act is just that, an act."

"W-What?!" Mirai said. "What the heck are you talking about?"

Sakura sighed. "Look, to make a long and embarrassing story short, Naruto used to have this technique called the Sexy Technique, and with that, he could get away with a lot of things that he wasn't supposed to. And the Sexy Technique," she nodded towards the fallen Naruko, "looked exactly like that."

Mirai let out a gasp of surprise before asking, "Wait, are you seriously trying to say that Naruko," she pointed towards said woman, "is actually Naruto in disguise?"

Sakura nodded as she disappointingly crossed her arms. "Afraid so. Honestly," she slowly made her way to the body with Mirai slowly and uncertainly following her and picked her up by the collar of her sundress, much to Himawari's dismay and Bolt's nervousness, "I get that you want to spend more time with the family and all," she clenched her fist angrily and glared at her, "but do you really have to do it in such a disgusting and degrading way?!"

"Stop!" Himawari wailed, holding onto the end of Sakura's own dress and tugging on it pleadingly. "Auntie Naruko didn't do anything wrong!"

Sakura looked down at the sobbing child for a moment before looking back at the twitching and semi-conscious face of Naruko's and giving her a disapproving frown. "And now you've somehow managed to get your own kids to believe in this too, huh?" She shook her head. "That's low, even for you, Naruto."

Bolt let out a tiny gasp of surprise. "Naruto?" he thought. "Dad?!"

It was then that Sakura's daughter, Sarada, entered the scene. Her eyes widened incredulously at just how much damage her mother had caused just to punch out this one person. "Whoa!" She then immediately turned back to her mom. "Mom, what did you do?!"

"I'll explain in a minute, sweetie," Sakura said.

"So that you can punch an innocent woman out?!" Sarada cried.

Sakura heaved out a heavy sigh. "I don't have time to explain the situation all over again."

"Look," Mirai frantically explained, "basically your mom thinks that the seventh hokage is using something called the 'Sexy Technique' to walk around the village as a girl or something!"

Sarada's eyes widened in surprise. "What?!"

"What?!" Bolt internally cried.

Mirai flung her arms up in dismay. "I don't know! This whole thing doesn't make sense to me either! I mean, she seemed so nice, and we had just left after watching a movie together, and -"

"No, not that!" an agitated Sarada said. She then turned to her mom. "Mom, didn't you always used to say that the Sexy Technique was nothing more than a glorified Transformation Technique?"

"Yeah, so?" Sakura asked, winding up for yet another punch in the hopes of knocking the seventh hokage out of his offensive disguise.

"So?!" Sarada cried out incredulously. "So if you've already punched him this hard, then the technique should've been released by now, right?!"

"Huh?" Sakura said, blinking in confusion for a moment before seriously contemplating over what her daughter had just said before looking awkwardly back down at the barely conscious Naruko's face and letting out a terrified and embarrassed scream. "Agh! What have I done?!"

"You jumped to conclusions, that's what you did!" Mirai cried. "She's no ninja! She's lucky to still be alive right now!"

"Auntie Naruko!" Himawari continued to cry, sobbing uncontrollably over the fact that her aunt hadn't yet regained consciousness since she had been hit.

Sakura cringed guiltily. "D-Don't worry, Himawari! I can fix this! I'm a medical ninja, remember?"

"Then put the poor woman down and heal her already!" Mirai said.

"Oh! Um... uh... right!"

Sarada exasperatedly shook her head as her mother gently placed Naruko's body onto the ground and began to heal her. "Honestly, mom..."

It was then that Naruko began to stir back into consciousness again, which caused for Himawari to let out a relieved gasp. "Auntie Naruko, are you feeling better now?"

Naruko groggily groaned and tenderly touched where Sakura had punched her before giving Himawari a reassuring smile. "Of course I do, dear. You're here with me, aren't you?" Himawari let out an excited gasp before giggling happily and giving her aunt a hug, which Naruko stiffened to at first, but eventually warmly and gently reciprocated. Despite all of the lies and secrets she had had to keep that day, she genuinely meant what she had just said. Getting hit by Sakura, while not the most desirable of methods, had resulted in her regaining some of her elusive memories, and none of them were particularly happy ones. She remembered that she had been hit before, and not just a few times, but practically every other time someone had decided to lay a hand on her. Not once had she ever felt a loving or gentle touch directed towards her body in any way. Not once had she had anyone genuinely worried about her well-being after she had been hit and waiting for her to reawaken every time she had blacked out because of it in the past. Not once had she ever had relieved for her, defend her, or tease her, let alone talk to her like she was a normal human being... until now.

This feeling that she had... when she was with Himawari, Bolt, Mirai, everyone... it felt absolutely wonderful. And she never wanted it to leave.

* * *

Author's Note: A belated Christmas present from me to every fan of this story! I hope you liked it! Merry belated Christmas and have a happy new year!


	7. A Realization

"I am so, SO sorry!" Sakura cried, bowing apologetically towards the still recovering Naruko who was sitting on a bench with a protectively clingy Himawari sitting beside her, hugging Naruko's slim waste and cautiously eyeing Sakura as she did. "I don't know what got into me! I just saw you and automatically assumed the worst!" She straightened herself up and hung her head, an embarrassed blush spreading across her face as she brushed a few strands of hair out of her face. "I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me."

Naruko wrapped her arm around Himawari's little shoulders, giving one of them a comforting squeeze, before raising the other hand up, waving it, smiling reassuringly (despite the lingering pain that was still in her cheek), and saying, "Now, now, you don't need to keep apologizing!"

Sakura let out a small and surprised gasp. "B-But -"

"Everybody makes mistakes," Naruko gently interjected. "You simply followed your intuition and didn't have a reason to believe otherwise, so you acted on it." Naruko tilted her head to the side and cutely placed a finger onto her cheek. "And after realizing your mistake, you immediately apologized and tried to make up for it, didn't you?"

Sakura sheepishly blushed as she averted her eyes to the side. "W-Well…."

Naruko let out a lighthearted giggle. "Mirai told me that you're a mother. Are those really things that you wouldn't want to teach her?"

Sakura awkwardly began rubbing the back of her neck. "W-Well, I mean, yes, but these kinds of stunts don't exactly raise my daughter's opinion of me, you know?"

Naruko looked down at Himawari and began to slowly brush her fingers through the little girl's hair. "Hmm, an opinionated one, is she?" she mused.

Sakura nodded. "Yeah," she said wearily. She sighed. "And she's gotten at that age where she's starting to ask questions too." She folded her arms. "That little girl of mine is going to cause me a lot of trouble one day."

"Yeah, well," Mirai said, nonchalantly interjecting herself into the conversation as she lazily sat on another bench besides Naruko and Himawari's, "it was only going to be a matter of time, right? I mean, how long can you keep up the your-father-is-on-a-mission thing to explain why she never sees him?"

Sakura's eyes widened in surprise as she let out a surprised gasp before whipping her head towards Mirai's direction. "How do you know about that?"

Mirai simply shrugged. "Sarada said it to Shikadai and Shikadai said it to me. Why? Is it not true?"

Sakura placed her hands onto her hips and hung her head, furrowing her brow as she grumbled to herself in frustration. "Like I would have any way of knowing that. Mothers and daughters have their own secrets that they choose to keep from each other, you know!"

"I'm a daughter who knows her mother!" Mirai scoffed. "Of course I know!"

Naruko let out an amused hum. "Children are a bit of a handful, aren't they?"

Himawari perked up upon hearing that. "I'm not a handful, right, Auntie Naruko?" She looked up at her hopefully. "I've been good, haven't I?"

Naruko giggled before tapping her finger against Himwari's nose. "Def. In. It. Ely. Himawari is definitely the best."

This earned her an ecstatic laugh from the youngest Uzumaki as she dangled her legs excitedly. "I'm the best! Himawari's the best!"

"Hey," Sakura said, giving Naruko a disapproving frown, "as nice as they may seem, you shouldn't shower her with sweet nothings like that. It could give Himawari the wrong idea."

"Maybe," Naruko playfully admitted, "but," she wrapped Himawari in a soft hug, which Himawari gladly reciprocated, "I just can't help myself. She's just the cutest thing, isn't she?"

Mirai let out a relenting sigh. "Spoken like a true aunt. Spoiling your siblings' children rotten, no matter what the consequences. How nostalgic." She then noticed the concern look on Sakura's face and decided to further break the ice. "What's the matter, Sakura? Jealous that your man isn't here to shower you with compliments like Naruko is doing to Himawari?"

This immediately earned her an embarrassed blush from Sakura as her body noticeably tensed. "H-Hey! Where do you get off with saying that?"

"Oh, that's right!" Naruko said, clapping her hands upon reaching the realization. "Mirai said something about your husband being on a mission, didn't she? You must get awfully lonely without him around."

"W-Well, not really. I… I mean, he's on a really important mission, so it can't be helped, so…."

"Oh?" Mirai grinned mischievously as she folded her arms and leaned forward in her seat. "Unless you're scared that he ditched you and ran off with another girl. Is that it?" She didn't really mean all this, of course. She just loved how much of a rise she was getting out of her from saying this.

"Of course he wouldn't!" Sakura argued defensively. "He would never do such a thing!"

"Of course not," Naruko agreed. "After all, Sakura is just so cute. What kind of husband could possibly leave such a cute wife behind?"

Sakura blushed profusely. "C-Cute," she murmured incredulously to herself. "Am I still… so cute and womanly that even someone as beautiful as Naruko would acknowledge it?" She then realized that Naruko, Mirai, and Himawari were all staring at her as she had taken a moment to indulge herself with such a flattering statement and awkwardly cleared her throat. "Um, I mean, yes, of course! Naruko's right! Family has always been an important part to Sasuke! He would never intentionally try to drive his family apart! No way, no how!"

"Huh?" Naruko asked, recognizing the name almost immediately the moment Sakura had finally uttered it in front of her. "Sasuke? You're married to Sasuke?"

"Oh, well, I don't mean to brag, but -"

"Because if you did, then that definitely complicates things," Naruko said, placing a hand against one of her cheeks in concern.

Sakura and Mirai's eyes both widened in surprise. "What?" Mirai said. "You know Sasuke?"

Naruko nodded. "Yes, and every time we met, he was always so rude and mean to me! And for seemingly no reason too!"

Himawari let out a horrified gasp. "That's terrible!"

"Hey!" Sakura cried defensively. "I don't know who you're trying to fool, but Sasuke definitely isn't that type of person."

"Oh, really?" Naruko asked. She then tilted her head and thought her accusation over for a bit. "I don't know. When your Sasuke was younger, didn't he wear his forehead protector on his head and wear a blue shirt?"

"U-Um, yeah…."

"And didn't he have a hairstyle kind of like this back then?" Naruko asked, using her hands to mime Sasuke's signature hairstyle back when Team Seven were still genin.

"Um, well, yeah, but -"

"Then that's the one!" Naruko said. "That's the same Sasuke who kicked me in the face!"

Mirai and Sakura's eyes widened as their jaws dropped down in shock as Himawari let out another horrified gasp. "But that's so mean!" she cried.

Naruko nodded. "Isn't it?" she said. "And all I was trying to do was try to convince him that Naruto needed a few minutes to go and fetch something that he accidentally left behind." She lowered her head sadly. "Why would anyone do that to someone?"

"I know, right?" Mirai asked, looking suspiciously towards Sakura as she said this. "Because that's kind of messed up."

Sakura noticed this and immediately raised her hands in an attempt to calm all of the other girls down. "N-Now wait just a moment! Sasuke isn't some kind of violent sociopath, alright? I'm sure he has a perfectly good explanation for why he did that!"

Mirai shook her head and folded her arms disapprovingly. "Spoken like a true enabler."

"I am NOT an enabler! For all we know, that kick was just an isolated incident! It's not like he did it on a regular basis!"

"He drove a shuriken up my butt," Naruko gently argued.

Himawari let out another horrified gasp as Mirai and Sakura's eyes once again bulged as their jaws dropped in shock. "Wait, what?!" Mirai cried.

"Why does everyone keep trying to hurt Auntie Naruko?!" Himawari cried out in dismay.

"Okay, THAT is messed up!" Mirai said, looking at Sakura as she was pointing a finger to the currently comforting Naruko as she tried to calm the distressed Himawari down by reassuring her that she had been alright both times.

"Sasuke," Sakura thought, "what exactly did you do back then when I wasn't looking?!"

Meanwhile, Bolt and Sarada were having a secret conversation of their own a little ways away from them.

"Hmm, interesting," Sarada said once Bolt had finally filled her in with all of the details. "So this so-called aunt just so happened to pop up out of nowhere, huh?"

Bolt nodded. "Yeah, and I'm not stupid! Dad definitely didn't have any other siblings growing up! Otherwise, why would both he and mom keep talking about how lonely he was back when he was a kid?"

"And my mom definitely mistook your aunt for your dad's Sexy Technique." Sarada held her chin as she took a moment to process all that she had learned. "Either this is the biggest case of missing-long-lost-relative ever, that also just so happens to be the biggest coincidence of all coincidences, or we've got a really big mystery on our hands!" She turned back to Bolt. "Is there anything about her that tipped you off? Anything at all?"

Bolt shook his head. "That's just the thing. She doesn't seem to know much about anything. I mean, she knew enough about dad and Konohamaru-sensei, but that was about it. And even then, they were pretty shocked to see her."

"Then that means somebody is lying here."

"Then it has to be the adults," Bolt concluded.

Sarada's eyes widened at Bolt's almost immediate and, frankly, surprising conclusion. "Um, what makes you think that?"

Bolt immediately blushed. "Um, well, it's just that…," he looked back at the conversation Naruko, Sakura, Mirai, and Himawari were having and focused solely on Naruko the entire time, before shaking his head, "I just have this feeling, alright?"

Sarada looked at him suspiciously for a moment before looking between him and Naruko several times, fixing her glasses, and giving Bolt a disapproving look, "Oh geez, you're not smitten with her already, are you?"

Bolt's blush simply got even darker upon hearing this. "N-No, of course not!" he cried out defensively, shoving his hands into his pockets and averting his eyes to the side, away from Sarada's judgmental gaze. "It's… it's just that, mom, dad, and Konohamaru-sensei were just so obviously making up their lies as they went along! It was just so obvious!"

Sarada frowned. "Right, sure it was." She then turned towards the conversation the three older women and Himawari and watched them thoughtfully for a moment before whispering, "She does seem really nice though. Like, way nicer than my mom ever was to me."

Bolt inadvertently nodded slightly to this and mumbled, "Yeah, she is."

The two stood where they were for a moment, lost in their own thoughts as they continued to watch the other group talk very animatedly among themselves before Sarada folded her arms and asked, "So, what are we going to do now?"

Bolt turned to her, an eyebrow raised in surprise. "Huh?"

"What are we going to do now?" Sarada repeated.

Bolt gave her an annoyed glare. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what it's supposed to mean." When Bolt still didn't seem to understand, she let out an exasperated sigh and asked, "You like her, right?"

Bolt took a moment to think the question over before nodding his head ever so slightly. "Yeah, Aunt Naruko is nice."

"Well, if that's the case, then do you even want to solve this mystery in the first place?"


	8. A Chance

"Hmm, so you're saying that Naruko isn't one of yours?" Kakashi asked, holding and rubbing his chin upon realizing that the situation was much more complicated and mysterious than any of them could've realized.

Orochimaru shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. Though," he smirked mischievously, "that is an interesting idea, is it not? Cloning the very reincarnations of the great Sage's sons themselves, albeit with a few minor modifications. What an interesting experiment that would be, wouldn't you say?"

Tsunade gave him a disgusted and disapproving look as she placed her hands onto her sides. "No, not really."

"Come now, Tsunade -"

"Don't you, 'Come now' me!" Tsunade exclaimed hotly. She folded her arms angrily. "You're lucky enough that we're even allowing you to do all of these crazy experiments of yours! Don't you start pushing that luck by playing God and creating more lives than you know what to do with!"

"With all due respect, Tsunade," Orochimaru calmly said, "wouldn't you think that it would at least be beneficial to everybody to at least have one with their abilities in reserve in case something were to happen to them?"

"Those two are strong enough to handle anything that comes their way!"

"Yes," Orochimaru admitted, "but still, we can't be too careful now, can we?"

Kakashi let out an exasperated sigh. "Okay, alright you two. Break it up. Let's get back to the issue at hand." He turned towards Orochimaru. "So, if she wasn't one of yours, then what exactly do you make of it?"

Orochimaru grabbed his chin as he pondered long and hard over the question posed to him. He turned to Hinata and asked, "You say that she seemed to appear out of nowhere, yes? That there should've been no way she could've snuck into your house undetected until morning, correct?"

Hinata nodded. "Yes. And she didn't really seem to know much of anything, and the few things she does know were very selective."

Orochimaru nodded as he continued to try to process this information. "And her presence cannot be detected by either Naruto's Sage Mode or your Byakugan," he murmured to himself. "What a curious case that is." He shook his head and shrugged, an amused smile appearing on his face. "I'm afraid that I am as stumped as all of you are."

Tsunade's eyes narrowed anxiously. "If even you don't know, then -"

"Then we'll just have to take more proactive measures into finding out," Orochimaru matter-of-factly said. "Bring her to me and I will certainly get to the bottom of all this."

"No!" Hinata couldn't help but exclaim. When everyone around her gave her surprised and suspicious looks, she blushed, and said, "I mean, yes, who she is and how she came about is definitely a mystery worth solving, but based on everything I've seen of her so far, she doesn't deserve to be locked up and studied on. At least, not yet anyway."

"Hinata's right," Kakashi said. He looked towards Orochimaru. "What you're suggesting is problematic to begin with, and with how little of a threat she seems to be so far, it'd be hard to justify it if word somehow got out about what happened to her."

"Well then, if you all do not consider her much of a threat, then why did you all come out here in the first place?" Orochimaru asked. When Tsunade, Hinata, and Kakashi remained silent, he chuckled. "Ah, so it is a fear of the unknown. How pitiful."

"Excuse me?" Tsunade angrily replied.

"Your fear of the unknown hinders you all from discovering the many secrets that this world has to offer, and in that sense, it is pitiful," Orochimaru answered. "And with that being said, if you do not throw away your heart at certain times, then you'll simply remain stuck at a certain point, never truly knowing what was beyond it."

"We're not going to imprison and experiment on an innocent woman just to alleviate our own fears!" Tsunade cried.

Orochimaru simply shrugged. "Well, if that's the case, then I fear that I will not be of that much help to you on this little endeavor or yours. After all, there's only so much a simple blood sample or fingerprint can do in a situation such as this."

"Alright then," Kakashi calmly said, "then how about instead of her coming to you, you come to her? That way, everybody wins. You get to examine her more closely and she keeps her freedom."

Orochimaru let out a disappointed sigh. "Unfortunately, that is not possible." He gestured around his lab. "I'm sad to say that my current studies and experiments all require my immediate attention. Leaving my lab to my... loyal assistants would do horrors to all of my experiments in the long run."

"Well then, if that's what you really feel," Suigetsu said, with an mischievous and toothy grin on his face, "then how about sending one of us over to the village instead? Then we could just relay the information that we find to you, and you'll still be here making sure everything's still standing! Well?"

Orochimaru thought it over for a bit. "Hmm, yes, that would certainly be the most beneficial for all of us, wouldn't it? And I suppose I HAVE taught you all how to properly study a test subject."

"Yep! And just to save you lot the trouble," Suigetsu raised a hand up, "I humbly volunteer to go in your - ow!" Suigetsu quickly rubbed the back of his head and glared at the woman behind him. "Hey, Karin, what the heck was that for?!"

Karin glared right back at him as she fixed her glasses. "You really are a piece of work, you know that?!"

Suigetsu blinked in confusion. "Huh?"

"Don't you start acting all innocent! I saw the way your eyes lit up the moment Hinata said that Naruko looked exactly like Naruto's Sexy Technique!"

Suigetsu laughed as he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Aw, that's what you're so riled up about? Come on, Karin! I'm a guy! If she really is as hot as the name implies, then a guy's gotta know, you know?"

Karin gasped. "How shameless are you about this?!"

"And besides," Suigetsu said, "if not me, then who? You? Are you THAT desperate to see Sasuke again?"

"Sasuke's not at the village right now, you idiot!"

"Yeah," Suigetsu admitted, "but he might be. And that's all that matters to you, doesn't it?"

Karin blushed as she fidgeted with her glasses and averted her eyes to the side. "J-Just what are you implying, huh? That I'd be willing to commit adultery with Sakura's husband or something?"

"All I was implying was you getting an eyeful of him, but now that you mention it -"

Karin shrieked as she punched Suigetsu across the face. "No, don't say it! Don't say it!"

"A lively duo those two make, don't they?" Kakashi murmured.

Orochimaru chuckled and nodded. "Indeed, they are."

It was then that Jugo stepped forward and said, "Orochimaru. If I may be so bold, I would like to volunteer for the position as well."

Suigetsu and Karin both stopped their bickering for a moment to give Jugo extremely surprised looks. "What?!" Karin cried. "Jugo too?!"

"Aw yeah!" Suigetsu cried out encouragingly. "Go get it, Jugo! You see that, Karin? The male instinct just can't be stopped!"

"Shut up, you!"

"Hmm," Orochimaru said, "and why exactly do you wish to go, Jugo?"

Jugo took a deep breath, before answering, "It took a while, but, thanks to you, I'm now able to completely control my darker side, or, at least, that's what we all hope."

Karin and Suigetsu both let out concerned gasps. "Jugo," Karin murmured.

"The truth is, being in complete control of my killer instinct in a confined place like this, I'm sorry, but that doesn't prove anything!" Jugo sadly looked down. "If I am to be truly sure that I am rid of that particular demon, then I must expose myself to the outside world and test myself there." He raised his head. "If Sasuke and Kimimaro were able to move forward, into the light, then so should I." He bowed respectfully to him. "It is my wish for you to consider it."

Orochimaru, Kakashi, Tsunade, and Hinata all looked at each for a moment before smiling and nodding to one another, while Suigetsu and Karin gave Jugo each a defeated shrug. "Well, after all that," Kakashi said, "how could we not?"

Jugo let out a surprised gasp before letting out a relieved sigh and saying, "Thank you very much. All of you. I'll make sure to prove to all of you, as well as myself, how far I've come since we all last met."

Tsunade nodded. "And if you do just happen to lose control, then don't worry," she slammed her fist into one of her palms, "we've got you covered."

Jugo nodded. "Yes, that's certainly nice to hear."

"Come, Jugo," Orochimaru said. "Let me provide you with all of the materials you will need for your study."

"Yes, Orochimaru."

As the two of them left, Suigetsu and Karin walked towards Hinata, with Suigetsu asking, "Okay, so, all joking aside, where is she now? I mean," he flashed the Hokage's wife a toothy and good-humored grin, "you can't just be letting her walk around and letting her do whatever she wants, are you?"

"W-Well, not really," Hinata answered. "You see, she's, well... with the kids."

Both Karin and Suigetsu's eyes widened in surprise. "What?!" they both cried.

"You're letting a strange, naked lady hang out with your kids, unsupervised?!" Karin asked incredulously.

"Well, we couldn't exactly lock her up," Hinata said. "And we have a good friend of ours watching after them, so they're not exactly unsupervised either."

"Still," Suigetsu said, "that's a little irresponsible of you, don't you think? I mean, what if she IS an enemy? What if she's making her move right now on your kids even as we speak?"

* * *

"None of you will get away!" Naruko cried as she ran as fast as she could after both Himawari and Bolt. "I won't let you!"

"Eek!" Himawari shrieked as she ran as fast as she could from her pursuer. "She's going to get us! She's going to get us! Bolt, help!"

"Stop following me, Himawari!" Bolt cried. "Don't you know anything about tag?! You have to spread out!" It was then that he tripped over Chouchou, who had been lying down on the ground eating her potato chips. Bolt quickly scrambled up and gave Chouchou a look of disbelief. "What are you doing?!"

Chouchou simply shrugged, and answered, "Eating a bag of barbecue potato chips." She lifted the bag up to him. "You want some?"

"Just because you've already been tagged, doesn't mean you can just lie around wherever you want!"

"Tch, you don't tell me where I can and can't lie around."

"Tag!" Naruko cried, placing her hand on top of Bolt's head and ruffling up his hair a bit with a giggle. "Now, freeze!"

Bolt's jaw dropped at this. "B-But Chouchou -"

"Uh, uh, uh," Naruko said, wagging her finger playfully at him. "Those. Are. The. Rules." She leaned down and looked at him face to face, flashing him an innocently knowing smile. "Right?"

Bolt pouted before folding his arms and grumbling, "Alright, alright, I'm freezing."

"Actually," Inojin said, walking up to them alongside Shikadai, "besides you, Himawari was the only one left, so technically, she wins."

Himawari gasped. She turned towards her aunt. "I won?!"

"Yes!" Naruko said, giving her a small round of applause. "You did it, Himawari! You won!"

"I won!" Himawari cried, jumping up and down in excitement. "I won! I won! I won!"

"Well, to be fair," Sarada said as she made her way towards the group, along with Sakura and Mirai, seeing as how she had passed up the invitation to play this time around, "Shikadai and Chouchou weren't really trying very hard, and Inojin and Bolt both tripped, so you might not want to let the win get to your head too much."

"Listen to Sarada, Himawari," Sakura gently instructed. "It's okay to feel good about winning, but being humble is just as appreciated."

"Oh," Himawari said with an understanding nod. "Okay."

"You know," Mirai said to Naruko, "I was kind of worried that the game would be too boring, you know? Considering the fact that you're an adult playing against kids and all, but that was surprisingly evenly matched." She gave her a funny look. "Have you ever ran a race in your life?"

"Hmm?" Naruko said. "What do you mean by that?"

"I don't know," Mirai said with a nonchalant shrug. "Your running just seems a little dainty is all. Have you never run away from somebody before?"

Naruko innocently tilted her head to the side. "Huh? Whyever would I do that?"

"Ah," Mirai said, waving her hand and shaking her head, "forget about it. It's not really that important."

"Oh, okay," Naruko said. She then turned her attention back to the kids and asked, "So, what game do you all want to play next?"

"W-Well," Inojin began with a light blush on his face, "I... I was thinking that we could take a break from playing for a while and draw for a bit."

"Seriously, man?" Shikadai scoffed with a smirk on his face. "Are you already trying to impress her after you just met her a few minutes ago?"

Inojin's blush brightened significantly as he averted his eyes to the side. "N-No, I'm not! I just," he sheepishly shuffled his feet and held his hands behind his back, "I'm just in the drawing mood is all."

"Aw," Naruko said, looking at Inojin knowingly, "does somebody have a little crush on me, I wonder?"

"N-No, I don't!"

"Why are you lying?" Chouchou said in between munches. "Just own up to it like I own up to being fat."

"Being fat isn't something to be proud of!" Inojin cried.

"Aw, geez, there they go again," Shikadai muttered. "What a drag."

Naruko giggled. "There's nothing wrong with having a little crush, you know. In fact," she kneeled down to meet Inojin's face with her own, "I think it's VERY cute." She puckered her lips and insinuated that she was going to give Inojin a small peck on the cheek before stopping just shy of his it, giving him a good-natured smile, and whispering, "But you're a little bit too young for me."

She stood back up as Inojin looked at her in pure awe as Shikadai snickered to himself, Bolt gave Inojin a disgusted look, Sarada hid her face behind the hand that was fixing her glasses, Chouchou continued to eat on, and Himawari giggled. "Did you like that?" Shikadai said in between his laughter.

Inojin took a deep and starstruck breath. "Maybe."

"Hey, should we be concerned about that, or...?" Sakura whispered to Mirai.

"Ah," Mirai whispered back, "a little bit of teasing would never hurt anyone. But I will admit. That was S-Rank teasing right there. I could learn a thing or two from that."

"Oh, that reminds me!" Naruko said, making her way in between Sarada and Bolt. "We saw the two of you whispering to each other a little while ago." She looked at each of them and flashed the two a mischievously knowing grin. "Is there something between the two of you?"

"What?!" Sarada and Bolt cried, taking a step away from each other in disgust as Shikadai continued his snickering at their current predicament.

"No!" Bolt cried. "That's crazy!"

"Why would you think that?" Sarada asked.

"Well, it just seemed like you two were so close before -"

"We were talking about something in private!" Sarada said.

"Well then, what was it about then?" Naruko asked.

"None of your business," a familiar, male voice said sternly behind her. "And by the way," he punched her hard in the back of her head, making her yelp out in pain.

Everyone let out a surprised gasp as Naruko crumpled down and immediately placed her hand against the spot on her head that had just been so viciously hit. "Iruka-sensei?!" all of the kids (except Himawari, who had gone to comfort the hurt Naruko as best she could) and Sakura cried out in surprise.

"Cuz?" Mirai exclaimed incredulously as she spotted Konohamaru standing nervously besides the said sensei.

"I'm sorry!" Konohamaru said. "I tried to stop him, but he insisted!"

"On what?" Mirai asked.

"On getting the Hokage to finally stop it with these tired and stupid tricks!" Iruka answered, not taking his eyes off of Naruko for one second.

After taking a moment to take the entire situation in, Mirai sighed, rubbed her temples, and muttered, "This again, huh?"

Sakura chuckled nervously. "It seems that we should probably get a little more used to this from now on."


	9. A Tease Too Many

"What do you mean Naruto's Sexy Technique has somehow come to life?" Sakura hissed. After they had straightened out the misunderstanding with Iruka, Konohamaru had taken both Mirai and Sakura aside to discuss the situation, and despite having explained everything he knew about it, it still didn't seem to make a lick of sense to either of them.

"Exactly that!" Konohamaru insisted. "Look, I know that none of this makes sense, but that's the best explanation that I've got to explain this, alright?"

"Well then, come up with a better explanation!" Sakura cried. "Because the one you've got right now kind of stinks, you know that?"

"Well, I mean, not really, you know?" Mirai said. "I mean, after the Forth Ninja War, both Naruto and Sasuke can apparently do some crazy things, right? So why couldn't something as crazy as this be one of them?"

"Two reasons," Sakura firmly argued. "Practicality and intent. Why would anyone, in a million years, create a technique that could turn transformations into living, breathing people? What's the practicality in literally creating a life that you can't exactly control? And even if there is a technique like that that's crazy enough to exist, why would Naruto, of all people, know about it, and perform it? What could Naruto possibly gain from bringing his Sexy Technique to life like this? It doesn't add up."

"Well, okay, fine," Mirai admitted. "So it doesn't. But so what? All we've figured out is that we still know way too little about this."

"Right," Konohamaru said with a nod. "So what do we do now then?"

Mirai sighed as she contemplated long and hard over it. "Okay, here's what we do…."

* * *

"P-Please, accept my apology!" Iruka cried as he gave Naruko a deeply embarrassed and apologetic bow. "I shouldn't have acted so rashly! I… I don't know what came over me!"

"Now, now," Naruko gently said, raising her hands up in an attempt to calm the panicking ninja down, "it was a simple mistake."

"T-That may be," Iruka said, stiffly straightening himself up and looking at Naruko with a disappointed frown on his face, "but that's still no excuse for what I did!" He clenched his fists and his teeth in frustration. "A ninja mustn't be too keen on jumping in before he or she gets all of the facts! I've been teaching my students that for years!" His face and head noticeably fell after saying this. "How can I still call myself a self-respecting teacher if I can't even set a decent example for my students?"

"My, my," Naruko said, placing a delicate finger against Iruka's forehead and using it to gently push Iruka's head back up so that he could properly look at her. "To be so stiff and hard on yourself, even now." She giggled as she flashed Iruka a small smile. "No wonder you've developed wrinkles all over that cute face of yours, Iruka-sensei."

Iruka immediately blushed upon hearing his name being uttered so lusciously. "Y-You know who I am?" he asked weakly.

Naruko cutely tilted her head to the side and smiled. "Well," she cupped the sides of Iruka's face with her hands, "how could I ever forget a cute face like this? Wrinkles and all?"

"H-Hey," Iruka disapprovingly said, gently prying Naruko's hands off of his face. "I resent that remark!" He touched the side of his face tenderly. "My face hasn't changed THAT much over the years."

Naruko gasped excitedly before giggling and pointing at his face. "There it is!"

"Huh?" Iruka asked, wide-eyed. "There what is?"

Naruko clasped her hands together and pressed her index fingers against her lips as she winked playfully at Naruto's old teacher. "Iruka-sensei's cute side."

Iruka gasped. "C-C-C-Cute side?"

Naruko nodded. "Yep!" She leaned her face closer to Iruka's. "On the outside, Iruka-sensei is the strict and no-nonsense teacher who takes his job very seriously." She then stopped once their faces were literally an inch apart. "But on the inside… Iruka-sensei is very innocent and shy. Right?" She then blew him a kiss on the lips, which is what finally broke the camel's back, causing the already sweating and nervous Iruka to finally fall back from the incredible and extremely foreign pressure Naruko was placing onto him.

"I… I… I…," Iruka gulped nervously as he turned his back towards Naruko and pinched the bridge of his nose, afraid that the usual sensation that came with Naruto's Sexy Technique would unwillingly overtake him again, "no, of course not! W-Where would you get that idea?"

Naruko laughed good-naturedly as she clapped her hands. "There it is! There's the Iruka-sensei I know!"

"N-No!" Iruka cried, desperately shaking his head and waving his hand in order to dissuade Naruko from affirming her conclusion of him. "Y-You've got it all wrong! I'm not that that kind of person! Honest!"

"Oh, dear," Naruko said, placing one of her hands onto one of her cheeks and shaking her head sadly, "that habit of caring too much about what other people think of you is a natural one at this point, isn't it?"

"I… of course not! I don't care about what others think of me!"

Naruko smiled knowingly. "Of course not, sweetie."

"S-S-S-Stop that!"

"Hmm?" Naruko asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion. "Stop what?"

"T-That!"

Naruko placed her index finger against her cheek and frowned. "What 'that'?"

"Y-Y-You know what I'm talking about!"

"If I did, I wouldn't be asking, now would I?"

"Gah!"

"Big brother," Himawari asked, pointing curiously at Iruka, whom she and the rest of the other kids were watching as the other adults were apparently discussing something amongst themselves, "why is Iruka-sensei acting so funny?"

Bolt gulped nervously. "Um… well, you see…."

Sarada fixed her glasses. "Y-You're a little bit too young to know what exactly is going on, Himawari. You're just going to have to wait until you're a little bit older."

Himawari pouted. "Aw, but I want to know now!"

"Well, it's not too different to how Inojin was acting just a few minutes ago," Shikadai said. "Does that help, Himawari?"

"Hey!" Bolt cried. "Just what the heck are you trying to teach my sister, huh?!"

"Yeah!" Inojin added. "And why are you comparing me to Iruka-sensei all of a sudden?" He looked back at Iruka-sensei in disgust. "Even you have to admit that I wasn't THIS bad."

"Eh, better to get this stuff out of the way now, right?" Shikadai answered. "Saves the trouble of worrying about it later, you know?"

"No, we don't know!" Bolt and Sarada cried.

"Oh, but enough of this," Naruko said, deciding to spare Iruka from any further teasing and move on to another topic that she had been meaning to ask the moment she saw him. "How have you been? What exactly are you doing these days?"

Iruka sighed, scratched the back of his head, and answered, "Well, if you must know," he gave Naruko a small, but proud smile, "I've been promoted. You're now looking at the new headmaster of the Academy!"

Naruko gasped. "Really?!"

Iruka chuckled and bashfully hung his head as he placed his hands onto his sides. "Yep. Looks like all of my hard work finally paid off."

"That's great!" Naruko cried, giving Iruka a great, big, congratulatory hug, which Iruka immediately stiffened under. "They couldn't have picked a better person for the position!"

"Um, well," Iruka stammered, blushing a bit at all of the attention Naruko was giving him based solely on the fact that he had been promoted, which was honestly a bigger reaction than anybody else had had when he had first announced it, "t-thanks, I guess."

Naruko smiled at him as she let him go. "You're very welcome. And? What else? That couldn't possibly be all, right? I mean," she looked tenderly at all of the kids who were arguing amongst themselves (except for Chouchou, who was still busy eating her chips in silence as she and Himawari watched the other kids argue), "just look! Naruto's married now and he has two wonderful and beautiful children! Sakura and Sasuke too!" She turned back to Iruka, whose smile wavered just a bit upon realizing just exactly what Naruko was asking him. "There has to have been more going on in your life besides that!"

Iruka heaved out a long sigh before placing his hands onto his side and looking up at the sky thoughtfully. "If you're asking who I've married, then, I'm sorry to disappoint you," he looked back at Naruko and gave her a small and embarrassed grin, "but I've sadly remained single after all of these years."

Naruko let out a surprised gasp before looking at Iruka thoughtfully. "What?"

Iruka let out a sad chuckle. "I know, right?" He rubbed the back of his neck as he averted his eyes to the ground. "I guess I've just been so focused on helping to shape the futures of so many others that I forgot to take time out of my schedule to shape my own future in the process. Pretty sad, huh?"

It was then that he felt a hand gently cup one of his cheeks, causing him to look up to find Naruko looking tenderly at him and shaking her head. "No, I think that's definitely admirable. Helping to shape children's futures and setting them on the right path… that's definitely more admirable than getting married, isn't it?" She tilted her head to the side as she thoughtfully looked over Iruka's shocked face. "But, it really is a shame, you know? Having such a good man with such a cute face go to waste like this." She let go of his face and placed a finger onto her face as she looked long and hard at him. "You know," she finally said, "if I was just a little bit older or if you were just a little bit younger," she smiled and playfully winked at him, "I would definitely consider it."

Iruka let out a small gasp before chuckling awkwardly and saying, "W-We'd best leave it at that."

"Hmm, are you sure?" Naruko asked with a giggle.

Iruka nodded. "Yes, I'm sure," he said firmly. "And besides," he folded his arms solemnly, "just how old do you think I am?"

"Oh? Are you saying that you're actually still young enough to -"

"W-Whoa, wait," Iruka said, raising his hands up in an attempt to dissuade her from affirming the conclusion she seemed to be reaching, "j-just because I'm still young enough to date, doesn't mean that I was insinuating that we -"

"We… what?" Naruko asked huskily, placing her index and middle fingers against Iruka's chest and running them up to the point where she would eventually use her index finger to tap against Iruka's nose, causing Iruka to spout a small nose bleed due to the ordeal.

"A-Ah!" Iruka cried, doing his best to clean himself up and stop the bleeding as quickly as possible.

Naruko giggled and gave Iruka one of her signature smiles. "Ah, look at that. I'm flattered that you still think so highly of me after all this time, sensei."

"N-No! Wait! You've got it all wrong! This isn't what it looks like!"

"He did it!" the two of them heard Bolt cry out in complete shock. "He actually did it! He got a nosebleed!"

Shikadai could barely contain his snickering. "Oh my gosh."

"Sarada," Himawari said, tugging at the end of said girl's clothes in order to gain her attention. "Why does Iruka-sensei have a nosebleed?"

Sarada further fixed her glasses as he body noticeably stiffened. "M-Maybe when you're older, Himawari."

"See?!" Inojin cried. "I told you! I was nowhere near as bad as Iruka-sensei is, right guys?!"

"You're still hung up on that?" Chouchou asked in-between the chewing of her food.

"N-No!" Iruka cried. "It's not what you think!"

"But isn't it, though?" Naruko asked, quickly wrapping her arms around Iruka's and pressing her chest against it. "What's so bad," Naruko's eyelids lowered suggestively, "about being honest with your feelings?"

And it was this that finally broke the camel's back, or in this case, Iruka's nose's control over the amount of blood which was being spilt.


	10. A Many Reunions

"Hey, Naruko!" Mirai called out as she, Sakura, and Konohamaru slowly made their way towards the said woman, who was slowly trying to help the shocked and stupefied Iruka back onto his feet while gently apologizing for teasing him so much.

After taking a moment to make sure that Iruka was steady and okay, Naruko turned her head towards her recently-made friend and readily asked, "Yes?"

"Well," Mirai began, crossing her arms and gritting her teeth, and nervously looking at her associates as if to reaffirm that yes, they were in fact going to go through with this, before scratching the back of her head and saying, "I just... kind of have a question for you."

"Oh?" Naruko asked, innocently tilting her head to the side as she gave her friends a curious frown. "Well, what is it?"

"Well," Mirai cleared her throat uncomfortably, "you see, we were just wondering if, you know... the term 'Sexy Technique' rings any bells with you or not?"

Naruko pressed a finger against her lip as she thought the question over. "Sexy... Technique?" she murmured questionably to herself.

"Hey," Iruka urgently whispered, "what do you three think you're doing?!"

"Getting to the bottom of this," Sakura firmly whispered back.

It was then that Naruko let out a sudden, small gasp of realization. "Oh!" She clapped her hands together. "Of course!"

"Huh?!" all of the adults cried, the mysterious blonde's admittedly unexpected reaction earning her all of their undivided attention as they anticipated what she would do or say next.

Much to their surprise, Naruko looked herself over for a bit while murmuring to herself, "Hmm, let me see now," before nodding and humming contently and saying, "Yes, I think this'll work," and draping her luscious pigtails suggestively over her chest, slid her hand down her stomach until it was protectively covering her crotch area, placed her other hand behind her head, and gave both Konohamaru and Iruka such a look of longing and want that it made all four of the adults blush. "Iruka," Naruko called out in a husky whisper. "Konohamaru." She leaned and stretched her chest forward. "What do you think? Is this sexy enough for you?" She then straightened her back and gently placed the hand previously behind her head tentatively onto her chest. "I'm sorry, but whenever I'm with the two of you, my poor heart just can't take it. If either of you could just feel my chest right now, then you'd know just how hard my heart is beating for you two." She then grabbed the sides of her pigtails and pressed them against the sides of her face in a way akin to a little girl holding her stuffed animal closer to her face. "Just thinking about the two of you seeing me like this, I'm so embarrassed, and yet...," she slowly and nervously gulped as she gave the two of them bedroom eyes, her lower lip beginning to quiver as her face seemed to blush right on cue, "and yet...," she brought her thighs together as they began to fidget uncontrollably, "I can't help it!" She shook her head and pressed her pigtails even closer against her face. "I'm going absolutely crazy for you!" she cried, the moan that she added at the end of it being the cherry on top to breaking Konohamaru and Iruka's limit as well as Sakura's calm and patience.

"There it is!" Konohamaru cried while clenching his fist excitedly and letting his nose bleed run as it may. "Sexy Technique: Conservative Version!"

"I don't remember my character being this type of person!" Iruka cried as too suffered a nosebleed in response to Naruko's stimulating mannerisms and behavior. The two would have continued to enjoy it too, if it were not for the powerful fist slamming itself onto the back of their heads.

"Agh!" they both cried as Sakura's fist knocked the two of them back into reality.

"You two are way too old to still be into this kind of stuff!" Sakura grumbled as her fist trembled in irritation.

"Even though you're secretly no better than we are," Konohamaru muttered, earning him another punch to the back of the head. "Ow!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Sakura defiantly said, crossing her arms with a light blush on her face.

"W-Wow," Mirai said, both impressed and scared of what she had just witnessed. "I mean, I knew that you were good, but not THAT good." Naruko giggled as she gave Mirai the V sign. "It kind of makes me wonder if I could pull that off if I wanted to."

"Oh, I'm sure you could!" Naruko said encouragingly. "You're plenty pretty enough! And all it takes is a little bit of practice and imagination!"

"You say it like it's easy to get the hang of," Mirai mutters as she slumped down into a kneeling position to mope, "but in looks alone, you and I are in completely different worlds."

Naruko tilted her head to the side and frowned. "Hmm?"

"Ah, and while we're at it," Konohamaru excitedly said as he leapt back to his feet while Iruka was struggling to get back on his, "what about the Harem Technique? Do you recognize that one too?"

Naruko pressed her finger against her lips as she once again thought long and hard over it. "Harem Technique, huh?" She closed her eyes and thought for a couple more seconds before letting out an excited gasp and saying, "Oh, right! That!" She then, much to everyone's surprise, held up the hand sign necessary to perform the Shadow Clone Technique. "Harem Technique!"

All of the adults let out a gasp of surprise as clouds of smoke began bursting around them. "What the -" Mirai muttered.

"No way!" Sakura thought as the smoke began to clear. "She knows the Shadow Clone Technique?!"

When the smoke finally dissipated, the four adults found four, but still clothed, Narukos latching themselves onto Iruka, whose jaw dropped as he gawked and let out a silent and panicked scream upon realizing that he was once again going to be the victim of one of Naruko's machinations. "Iruka-sensei," the Naruko who was standing by Iruka's side and had her arms wrapped around Iruka's neck with an optimistic and flirtatious smile on her face, "can I possibly...," she shifted nervously, "get a kiss?" She then puckered her lips and brought them dangerously close to Iruka's face and stopping there, as if waiting patiently and expectantly for Iruka to play his part as well.

Iruka's blushed furiously. "I... I... I... I...," he stammered.

One of the Narukos kneeling at Iruka's feet giggled. "Aw, look, he's shy." She took one of Iruka's hands and began to sensually rub it against her cheek. "How adorable!"

"I... I... I... I..."

"Hey," another Naruko at Iruka's feet said, perching herself against Iruka's leg and giving him a doe-eyed look and pout, "after all of the attention we're giving you, you can at least say something! It's just plain rude if you just ignore all of us!"

"Of course he's not ignoring us!" the fourth cried as she cuddled closer onto Iruka's other arm before giving him a playful wink. "Iruka's-sensei is just enjoying the attention too much!"

"But I want him to pay attention to us more!" the third one whined, jumping up to look Iruka in the eye, "

"You've just got to be patient," the second one gently instructed as she gracefully stood up. "Iruka-sensei is a shy boy. You need to allow him to take his time with us."

"But he can at least give us a kiss to thank us!" the first Naruko countered before gently grabbing Iruka's chin and using it force him to look at her in particular. "Hey, why are you taking so long?" She cutely frowned. "Don't you want to kiss me?"

"I... I... I... I..."

"Ah!" the forth Naruko cried. "Maybe he wants all of us to kiss him at the same time!"

"Ah!" the second Naruko gasped, clapping her hands together upon seeing the forth Naruko's point. "Maybe you're right!"

The third Naruko gave him a knowing smirk and giggle. "Aw, you're so spoiled Iruka-sensei!"

"Pucker up," the first one whispered sultrily as the four of them closed their eyes and slowly brought their lips closer and closer towards Iruka's face before poor Iruka finally couldn't take it anymore.

"Gah!" Iruka cried as he fainted, his nose bleeding profusely as he did.

"Yay!" the forth Naruko cried as she jumped into the air and giggled triumphantly before dispelling her clones, looking towards the other three adults, and giving them another V-sign. "Success!"

"I swear...," the still weak and dazed Iruka managed to utter, "I'm not this kind of person."

"There it is!" Konohamaru excitedly cried out. "Harem Technique: Conservative Version!"

"T-The Seventh Hokage was into some pretty kinky stuff, wasn't he?" Mirai muttered as Sakura once again hit Konohamaru for his insolence.

Sakura let out an exasperated sigh. "You have no idea." Her eyes then widened as she let out a horrified gasp upon realizing something terrible. "Oh no! The kids!" She then turned towards the kids, who all except Himawari had scared and awkward expressions and intense blushes on their faces.

"I... I wasn't expecting Aunt Naruko of being capable of doing all that," Boruto muttered. "She seemed so nice and innocent."

"Huh?" Himawari innocently asked. "What are you talking about, Boruto? Auntie Naruko IS nice!"

"Yeah," Sarada said under her breath, "you keep thinking like that Himawari. It's better if you do."

Himawari turned to her and gave her a curious frown. "Huh?"

"You're a little bit too young to understand, Himawari," Chouchou softly explained.

"To be fair, I think we're all a little bit too young for what we just saw," Inojin said.

"To have an aunt like that living in your home," Shikadai muttered. "It's probably going to be such a drag."

"Y-Yeah," Boruto said with a nod.

Sakura let out an internal sigh of relief. "Well, at least the damage was minimal."

"Ah!" Naruko squealed. "Lee!"

"Oh?" Lee said once he had spotted Naruko running up to him. "Naruto?"

Naruko hugged him before letting him go and shaking her head. "Nuh-uh, it's Naruko now!"

"O-Oh, really?" Lee asked, raising an eyebrow as he was unable to wrap his head around what was happening in front of him. "Well, hello then, Naruko."

Naruko smiled before squealing again once she saw Lee's son, Metal, standing calmly next to him. "Is this your son?"

"O-Oh," Lee nodded, "yes, this is my son, Metal Lee."

Metal politely bowed his head. "H-Hello there, miss."

"Aw!" Naruko gushed as she knelt down and gave Metal a great, big hug, much to Metal's usual discomfort. "He's like a little, miniature version of you! How cute!"

"Ah, well -"

"Lee!"

Lee stopped to see Sakura and Mirai running up to them, with Konohamaru and the kids taking care of the fallen Iruka. "Oh, Sakura. How are things?"

Sakura glanced wearily at the jovial blonde hugging Lee's son and sighed. "Complicated."

"Oh? Then perhaps I can be of some assistance?"

* * *

"Hmm," Lee said, inquisitively grabbing his chin after Sakura and Mirai had finally finished filling him in on their peculiar situation, "yes, I see. This entire ordeal is indeed strange."

Sakura crossed her arms and let out a heavy sigh. "Strange doesn't even begin to describe it."

Lee chuckled. "Yes, perhaps 'impossible' may be a more accurate fit." He then turned to Mirai. "So how exactly have you decided to approach this?"

"Well," Mirai answered, "we figured that she seemed to have a pretty selective and limited memory, so we decided that we'd try and pick at it to see what exactly is in that little head of hers."

Lee nodded understandingly. "I see. And what exactly have you found out so far?"

"Well, for starters, she only really seemed to recognize Naruto, Konohamaru, and Iruka," Mirai stated.

"And she seems to be familiar with the Sexy and Harem Techniques," Sakura added.

Lee's jaw dropped upon hearing this. "Wait, are you serious?!" he cried out in disbelief.

Mirai flashed him a small, reassuring grin. "Well, to be fair, she seems to think that the Sexy Technique is just doing whatever she can to drive boys crazy. And as for the Harem Technique, she's apparently mistaken that for the Shadow Clone Technique with a little bit of suggestive teasing added to the mix."

"'A little bit'?" Sakura muttered in disbelief.

Lee once again held his chin as he pondered over everything he had just heard. "I see." He then smiled at the two. "Well, that all certainly makes sense."

Sakura and Mirai let out small gasps of surprise in response. "Huh? It does?" Sakura asked.

Lee nodded. "Yes. If Naruto's Sexy Technique has indeed come to life, then it would only make sense if all she could remember were the people and the events at the time the technique had been performed." He turned to Sakura. "If I remember correctly, you said that Naruto once performed the Sexy Technique in front of Iruka in one of your classes back at the academy, correct?"

Sakura's eyes widened upon realizing where Lee was getting at with all of this. "Oh, that's right!"

Lee nodded affirmatively. "And if I remember correctly, Konohamaru always used to boast about how Naruto taught him the Sexy Technique."

"R-Really?" Mirai said. "I... I didn't realize that my cousin was so deep into this."

Lee chuckled. "Yes, your cousin always took Naruto's training and lessons very seriously, including the more perverted and shameless ones."

Mirai laughed awkwardly at this. "O-Oh, is that so?"

Sakura pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. "Those two... I swear..." She then let out a tiny gasp of surprise, turned to Lee, and asked, "But hey! That doesn't exactly explain why she was able to recognize you, Lee! As far as I know, you've NEVER really seen Naruto's Sexy Technique before!"

Lee chuckled knowingly. "That is where you are wrong, Sakura," he said coolly. "You see, back on that other show, I was actually exposed to Naruko's beauty quite often!"

Sakura let out a horrified gasp as Mirai eyes the two of them in confusion. "W-Wait a minute!" Sakura quietly cried. "A-Are you seriously saying that the other show was canon?!"

"Why not?" Lee asked proudly.

"There are plenty of reasons as to why not!"

"Um," Mirai sheepishly raised her hand, "what exactly are you two talking about? What 'other show'?"

Sakura sighed and rubbed her temples in exasperation as she shook her head and waved Mirai's question off while saying, "Forget about it. It was before your time and you wouldn't understand it even if we told you."

Mirai raised an eyebrow and gave her an incredulous look of disbelief for a moment before letting out a weary sigh, shaking her head, and saying, "Okay, fine. Whatever." She turned to Lee. "So we know why Naruko knows certain things and not others. What are we supposed to do with that?"

Lee frowned solemnly. "Unfortunately, there are times when one must be honest with themselves and simply admit that there is not much they can do to solve the problem. That being said, however," Lee gave her a reassuring smile, "I doubt that there's anything wrong with continuing to jog Naruko's memory, even if it's just a little bit. Perhaps we should focus on that for now."

Sakura held her chin as she tried to consider all of their possible options. When she came to the conclusion that Lee certainly had a point, she let out a relenting sigh, and said, "Yeah, I guess we've got no other choice, do we?"

Mirai nodded understandingly. "Okay," Mirai said. "Then I guess the next question should be how exactly we're going to do that. I mean, as infamous as the technique is, I doubt the seventh Hokage would've used it on that many people." She solemnly folded her arms. "For all we know, we've already reached the pique number of people that she knows of around here. How exactly are we going to jog her memory if there's nothing left to help jog it?"

Lee thought it over for a bit before snapping his fingers and saying, "Ah, or course!" He turned to Sakura. "Didn't Naruto train with the legendary Sanin, Jiraiya, for a year that one time?"

"Oh," Sakura nodded, "yeah."

"And was it not Jiraiya who wrote the adult romance Make-Out Paradise series?"

Sakura cringed a bit upon remembering the series of novels that Kakashi always read every chance he could. "Y-Yeah."

"That settles it then!" Lee confidently declared. "A legendary pervert such as himself surely would have been exposed to Naruto's Sexy Technique at least once during that time!"

"You know," Mirai thought as she helplessly continued to watch this conversation, "when I woke up today, I never would have imagined that I was going to learn how so many ninjas within our village were secretly really big perverts."

"But Lee," Sakura said, "Jiraiya's dead. You know that."

"Do not worry," Lee confidently reassured. "I am sure that it will all work out somehow. Perhaps merely giving him a mention would be enough, or perhaps showing Naruko his memorial will motivate her to remember him naturally."

Sakura turned to Mirai to silently ask for her opinion on all this, but merely got an uncertain shrug in return. "Well, considering the fact that no one has any better ideas..."

Meanwhile, the children were busy further introducing Metal to the newest edition to the Uzumaki family as Konohamaru continued to help Iruka get his bearings. "Metal and his father are experts at hand to hand combat," Sarada explained. Metal straightened himself up proudly upon hearing this, only for Sarada to smirk at him and add, "But you wouldn't really know it with Metal, because he always gets nervous and messes up when he knows that people are watching."

"T-That is not true!" Metal desperately and unconvincingly cried out, an extremely embarrassed blush quickly appearing on his face. "I... I can hold myself just fine in front of other people! I... I just happen to be unlucky whenever other people are around!"

Shikadai frowned at this. "You're not making a good case for yourself," he lazily stated.

Inojin nodded. "And denying it only makes you look guiltier than before."

"B-But it is true!" Metal stammered.

"Aw," Naruko gushed, "he gets stage fright! That's adorable!"

"I do not have stage fright!" Metal insisted.

"Lame," Chouchou nonchalantly declared as she began to munch on another bag of chips. "Take it from me. You're better off owning your lameness than pretending that it doesn't exist. It only makes you look lamer if you don't."

"Actually, it only makes you makes you seem impossible to deal with," Boruto muttered. "Which you kind of are."

"Hey!" Chouchou cried. "I'm super easy to get along with!" She turned to the rest of their friends. "Right, guys?!"

Shikadai and Inojin averted their gazes and shoved their hand into their pockets and folded their arms respectively. "W-Well, I wouldn't exactly go that far," Shikadai said.

"And there's nothing to be proud of by being fat," Inojin added.

"Hey!" Chouchou cried, stomping her foot in anger. "What kind of friends are you?!" She then turned to Sarada. "Hey, Sarada, I'm easy to get along with, right?"

Sarada let out an awkward laugh and answered, "Um, yeah, sure, of course."

"Ha! You see?"

"That doesn't prove anything!" all of the boys cried, as Naruko laughed at their childish antics.

"Excuse me, Naruko," she heard Lee say from behind her.

She turned around to properly face him and see Mirai and Sakura standing behind him. "Yes?" she asked innocently.

"May I ask you something?" Lee calmly asked.

Naruko giggled. "You can ask me anything you'd like, cutie."

Lee blushed and smiled goofily for a second before shaking his head and solemnly asking, "Well, um, I would just like to ask... do you know of a man named Jiraiya?"

Naruko let out a tiny gasp of surprise upon recognizing the familiar name before placing a finger against her forehead and racking her head about it before letting out an excited gasp and crying, "Oh! You mean Pervy Sage!"

"P-Pervy Sage?" Mirai repeated incredulously.

Naruko nodded. "Uh-huh!" She then cupped her face into her hands and let out nostalgic giggle. "He would always get so excited whenever he saw me, and he was so shameless that he'd often ask me to do crazy things that even I'D admit would be a bit too embarrassing for anyone to do." She bashfully shook her head at the thought of it all. "Like that one time when I was trying to convince him to train Naruto for the Chunin Exams, but he said that the only way he would do it was if I stayed na-"

"Gah!" Sakura cried, quickly using her hand to cover Naruko's mouth upon realizing what she was probably about to say next. "What do you think you're doing?!" she hissed.

Naruko's eyes blinked in confusion for a moment before answering, "I was just going to tell Lee that Jiraiya would only agree to train Naruto if I were to stay naked the entire time."

"In front of the kids?!"

Naruko's eyes widened in realization. "Oh!" She gave her an apologetic smile. "S-Sorry."

Sakura sighed and released her hand from Naruko's mouth. "It's fine. Just... never let that happen again when we're not around, okay?"

Naruko nodded. "Okay!"

When Sakura finally backed away from her, Naruko turned back to Lee and, ignoring all of the looks of confusion on everyone else's faces, said, "So, um, yeah, to make a long story short, of course I knew him! Why do you ask?" She then let out an excited gasp. "Wait a minute... is he here?" She let out a jovial laugh as she clapped her hands together. "Wow! At this rate, I'm going to just about be reuniting with everybody that I knew here!"

"Um, yes," Lee said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck after glancing back at Mirai, who cringed guiltily upon realizing that they were going to be cutting Naruko's reunion with all of her friends short a bit, "about that. See, I am sorry to be the one to say this, but... Jiraiya passed away a long time ago."

Naruko let out a tiny, horrified gasp of surprise upon hearing the unfortunate news. Everyone was silent for a moment, Naruko needing a moment to fully process the information while everyone else anxiously waited for a response. She bowed her head a bit, and softly asked, "W-What do you mean by that?"

"Naruko," Sakura gently said, "I'm so sorry, but... there's no real better way to say it. Jiraiya's dead. He's been for a while now."

Naruko squeezed her hands, which were still clasped together, and brought them towards her heart before breathing in a jagged breath and letting it out heavily. "O-Oh."

Another moment of tense silence came between everyone before Mirai cleared her throat awkwardly and suggested, "Do you want to go and visit his memorial?"

Naruko's eyes widened upon hearing this. "Huh? His memorial?"

Mirai nodded. "Yeah. It's a little bit out of the way, but I'm sure we could take you there if you wanted to."

Naruko averted her eyes to the side for a moment as she cutely bit her lip in uncertainty before nodding her head, flashing Mirai a small smile, and saying, "Yes, that would be nice, thank you."

* * *

"Is this it?" Naruko quietly asked. Mirai, Sakura, Lee, and Konohamaru had led her into a forest outside of the village, and had ultimately stopped in front of a large stone with the kanji for "teacher" etched onto it with two smaller stones at either side of it and three kunai knives with a wire running through them, and a worn out book and bouquet of paper flowers lying against it. They had left the children back at the village under Iruka's care.

Konohamaru nodded solemnly. "Yeah." They watched as Naruko slowly made her way towards it, knelt down, and gently laid a hand against the large stone in the center.

"He died sending important information to us," Lee explained. "If it were not for him, the village would have possibly been too overwhelmed to properly fight back against the threat that was the Akatsuki. He died valiantly."

"Really?" Naruko quietly asked.

"Um, well, in all honesty, my team and I were not actually there at the time, but…."

He then turned to Sakura, who sighed before answering, "Yes, it's true."

Naruko nodded. "I see." She then smiled down at the memorial and whispered, "Despite how pervy you were, you really were a super-strong sensei in the end, weren't you?" She slid her hand along the stone as if she were petting an animal. "You really didn't have to do everything that I asked, but you did anyway, despite the fact that all I ever did was tease and indulge you a little bit here and there." She let out a sad giggle. "Thank you. For everything."

When she finally stood back up, Sakura crossed her arms, and said, "Honestly, I'm surprised. Didn't Naruto only use you to get favors off of him? And didn't Jiraiya always ask for something perverted from you?"

Naruko nodded. "Yeah, that was pretty much our relationship with each other."

Sakura tilted her head to the side inquisitively. "But you seemed so sentimental just now? Why is that?"

"What a rude question," Konohamaru nonchalantly remarked. "She was paying respect to the dead, Sakura."

Sakura blushed in embarrassment. "I… I know that!" she insisted. "I just want to know if there was a bit more behind it, you know?"

Naruko giggled. "Getting all worked up over something so small. What cute behavior for someone your age!"

"'M-My age'?!"

"But, if I definitely had to answer that," Naruko said thoughtfully, "I guess I'd have to say that, even if his perviness could get a little bit out of hand every once in a while, the fact that he was always so head-over-heels for me every time he saw me…," she smiled fondly at the memory of him, "I can't help but be a little flattered over that, you know?"

Sakura let out a tiny gasp of surprise at Naruko's answer. "Y-Yeah."

Lee smiled. "Jiraiya sounded like a very honest person. Surely somebody like that could not have been all too bad."

"Exactly!" Naruko said.

Konohamaru looked up at the slivers of orange sky peaking through the trees. "It's getting late." He turned back towards the other three. "We should probably start heading back now."

Lee, Sakura, and Naruko nodded. "Right," they said.

Sakura then turned to Naruko, smiled, and said, "Come on, I'll walk you home."

Naruko smiled and nodded. "Thanks." They then began to follow Konohamaru back to the village, but before they left, Naruko took one last look at the memorial and whispered, "Goodbye… Jiraiya," she then chuckled, and added, "you perverted hermit," before blowing his memorial a kiss and jogging to catch up with the others.

* * *

"Hello?" Sakura called as she opened the door to the Uzumaki's apartment. "Is anybody in here?" She then let out a surprised gasp upon finding out that not only was there somebody there, but that the apartment was practically packed with people.

"Sakura?" Naruko asked. "What's going on? Is something wrong?" She then squeezed herself between Sakura and the doorframe before letting out a surprised gasp herself. "Oh!" She then gave everyone in the apartment a sheepishly cute wave. "Hi."

Darui nodded back at her in response. "Hey," he greeted, folding his arms and leaning his back against his chair as he did.

"S-So this is the Sexy Technique that Naruto was talking about," Chojuro quietly muttered.

"Huh," Kurotsuchi said, looking over Naruko for a moment, "not bad, actually."

"Pleased to meet you," Garaa said evenly.

"Hey!" Kankuro whispered, elbowing Shikamaru in the ribs. He wrapped an arm around Shikamaru's shoulders. "Why didn't you tell us that this Sexy Technique was going to be super cute too?!"

Shikamaru roughly forced him off and whispered back, "Because I thought that the name, 'Sexy Technique' would be pretty self-explanatory!"

"Yeah!" Kankuro argued. "About the fact that she was supposed to be sexy! But cute too? That's a whole different ball game, man!"

"Aw, you're worrying too much!" Akatsuchi quietly reassured. "A beautiful woman is always going to be a beautiful woman, right?"

"Wrong," Omoi muttered. "And the fact that you don't know the difference between sexy, cute, and beautiful at your age is honestly kind of scary."

"Oh?" Akatsuchi innocently asked. "How so?"

"Are you kidding me?!" Omoi hissed. "Different adjectives, different problems man!"

"Would the four of you be quiet?" Misuno hissed. "You're all making a scene!"

Naruto sighed wearily before getting up from his seat at the table, where Hinata, Jugo, and Kakashi were also sitting at, with Guy in his wheelchair sitting beside them, walked up to Naruko and Sakura, and quietly asked, "Where have you two been?!"

"At Jiraiya's Memorial," Naruko answered.

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise. "Wait, what?!" He turned to Sakura. "Sakura, why would you take her there?!"

"She asked me to!" Sakura hissed.

Naruto groaned as he buried his face into his hands. "This whole thing is just getting weirder and weirder by the minute."

"What's weird is why Jugo, Killer B, and all of the Hokages are here!" Sakura argued. "What are they all doing here?!"

"They were wondering why I left the meeting! And once I told them, they insisted on coming over here to help access the situation!"

Not really understanding what they were talking about, Naruko's eyes wandered around the room until she surprisingly laid her eyes on somebody whom she recognized. "Ah!" She pointed towards the said person, who had managed to stay uncharacteristically quiet throughout the entire thing. She excitedly ran up to him and pointed at him again. "It's you!"

Everyone raised an eyebrow in surprise as Killer B stayed stone-faced and Naruto's head slumped even lower in exasperation. "Hey, B," Darui said, "you know her?"

When no response came, Naruko let out a tiny gasp of realization and said, "Oh, right!" She then began to clear her throat before taking a deep breath and rapping, "You were that guy, from before, you were that guy, who rudely ignored!" She then took a deep breath before finishing her makeshift rap with a long-drawn out, "Meeeeeeeeeeee!"

Everyone's jaw dropped upon seeing this. The room was silent for what seemed like an eternity before Omoi glared at Akatsuchi and hissed, "You see what I'm talking about?! Different types of girls, different types of problems!"

"When I signed up for this gig, I never would have thought, in a million years, that I would have to witness something like that," Misuno said.

"That makes two of us," Kankuro replied.

When Killer B continued to not respond to Naruko's attempts at having a conversation with him, she petulantly stomped her foot, gave him a disappointed pout, and cried, "That's so mean! When somebody talks to you, the least you can do is talk back! Not stay silent or close the door in their faces!"

Killer B let out an astonished gasp as Darui's eyes shifted between Killer B and Naruko curiously. "'Close the door in their faces'?" he repeated incredulously. He turned to Killer B. "B, dude, what did you do?"

"Er, well, you see," B stammered, before turning back to the disappointedly angry Naruko in front of him and saying, "uh…," he let out an awkward cough, "s-sorry 'bout that, didn't mean to cause a spat, I just knew that you were teasing, to get me to be a helping!" He then hesitated before letting out an awkward, "Weeeeee!"

Naruko let out an excited gasp. "I did it! I did it!" She giggled as she quickly wrapped her arms and snuggled against Killer B's muscular arm. "I finally got you to acknowledge me!"

"Er, um," Killer B said as he scratched the back of his head, "yeah, you did."

"Weeeeeeeee!"

"W-Weeeeeee," Killer B half-heartedly repeated.

Everyone stared at them in disbelief, especially Darui and Omoi. Kurotsuchi shook her head slowly. "I was not expecting this to happen. I was not expecting this at all. And the funny thing is…," she smirked, "I don't know if this is the most confusing moment of my life, or the most amazing moment."

"Well, considering the fact that we don't even know who or what she is, at the very least, it should be considered one of the more worrying moments in our lives," Kakashi muttered.

"Ah," Might Guy said, slapping Kakashi painfully and jovially on the back, "you think too much, Kakashi! If you'd stop worrying for just a moment, you'd realize just how nice and youthful that moment was!"

Kakashi sighed. "This isn't exactly a situation that we can take lightly, you know."

Guy simply laughed at this. "Aw, don't be like that! You've got to learn to lighten up a little!" He then flashed Naruko a toothy grin, winked, gave her a thumbs up, and asked, "Right, Naruko?"

Naruko blinked in confusion at him for a moment before meekly hiding behind B and whispering, "I-It's the mushroom man."

Everybody's eyes widened in confusion. "'The mushroom man'?" Kakashi repeated, turning to Guy with a questionable look on his face. "Guy, have you met Naruko before?"

Guy innocently frowned and shook his head. "I've never seen her in my life!"

"The situation seems to have gotten even more confusing," Jugo evenly muttered.

Hinata nodded. "Yes, it has, hasn't it?"


End file.
